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Dickel, Simon. "“Can’t Leave Me Behind”: Racism, Gay Politics, and Coming of Age in Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby." Amerikastudien 56. (2011): 617–36. Added by: joachim (10/28/12, 1:36 PM) Last edited by: joachim (4/25/15, 9:30 PM) |
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| Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed BibTeX citation key: Dickel2011a Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Stuck Rubber Baby", Cruse. Howard, Ethnicity, Gender, USA Creators: Dickel Collection: Amerikastudien |
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| Attachments | URLs http://www.jstor.org/stable/23509432 |
| Abstract |
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On three different narrative levels, Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby portrays the coming of age and coming out of its white narrator, Toland Polk, in the American South in the 1950s and 1960s. This graphic novel shows that Toland’s personal developments are closely and necessarily linked to racist violence and the politics of the Civil Rights Movement. Analyzing the narrative functions of music, the translinear leitmotif of a crushed head, and Cruse’s manipulation of panel frames and gutters, I argue that Stuck Rubber Baby uses these three aspects to connect Toland’s biography to black history. The three devices allow Cruse to explore and interrogate the interrelated politics of black and gay liberation. Cruse is careful not to equate racism and homophobia. Picturing the black gay and lesbian characters Les, Esmeraldus, Marge, and Effie as being rooted within the black community, he circumvents the fallacy of stating that both forms of oppressions are analogous and effectively counters common stereotypical assumptions about the prevalence of homophobia in black communities.
Added by: joachim Last edited by: joachim |