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Ludewig, Julia. "Different beasts? National and transnational lines in the German-Indian anthology The Elephant in the Room." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 11. (2020): 52–73. Added by: joachim (8/8/20, 2:36 PM) Last edited by: joachim (8/8/20, 2:49 PM) |
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| Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2019.1621915 BibTeX citation key: Ludewig2020 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Spring", Gender, Germany, India, Interculturalism, Style Creators: Ludewig Collection: Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics |
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| Abstract |
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This essay compares the contributions by eight Indian and eight German-speaking visual artists to the 2016 issue of the all-women magazine Spring, an issue in which they reflect on gender roles, the titular 'Elephant in the Room.' Searching for transnational and national trends, I zoom in on three larger aspects: themes, genre, and visual style. Transnationally shared themes concern motherhood and female beauty standards. However, while artists across national and cultural borders ruminate about voluntary non-motherhood and engage expectations of feminine attractiveness, they differ in the extent to which they describe actually lived motherhood. The issue also shows culturally-specific beauty ideals, such as the Indians' preoccupation with fair skin. In a similar way, artists from both continents use the genre of autobiography, but go to different depths with a notable 'Indian' preference to explore a grandmother's past. Visually, too, the artists show interesting commonalities such as the tendency to tell their stories in a traditional comics format, yet the surface aesthetics differ. Whereas the Indian artists tend to employ a polished, fine-arts style, several German-speaking artists relish expressive abstraction. I provide possible reasons for these differences and end with an appraisal of how women artists might try to access the comics scene in the future.
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