Fun Home & Book History

In my opinion, the references to major literary works, the marginalia, and the glosses that can be found in Fun Home are some of the major factors that really make this graphic novel stand out in my mind because they emphasize the importance of book history and textuality within the text itself. I am currently taking a class called "Tangible Textuality" in which we discuss how textual elements such as marginalia and glosses, as well as material form, can work to enhance or emphasize meanings within the thematic content of the text itself. Page 28 is a wonderful example of the ways book historical elements can enhance meaning. It shows an excerpt from "Camus' first novel," a bird watching guide with marginalia added, and an "IMPORTANT MESSAGE" slip with handwriting. Bechdel uses all of these elements to enhance meaning in Fun Home while also calling attention to the importance of book history. She has even pointed out an important passage of Camus' novel through her use of color. Not only does Bechdel use glosses and marginalia as elements within the action of the actual narrative, but she adds her own glosses to emphasize meanings that are important within the narrative as a whole. The boxes pointing to various objects in the frames that simply identify those objects are also glosses put into the graphic novel by Bechdel herself.