In this groundbreaking collection of essays, interviews, and artwork, contributors draw upon a rich treasure trove of Jewish women's comics to explore the representation of Jewish women's bodies and bodily experience in pictorial narratives. Spanning national, cultural, and artistic borders, the essays shine a light on the significant contributions of Jewish women to comics. The volume features established figures including Emil Ferris, Amy Kurzweil, Miriam Libicki, Trina Robbins, Sharon Rudahl, and Ilana Zeffren, alongside works by artists translated for the first time into English, such as artist Rona Mor. Exploring topics of family, motherhood, miscarriages, queerness, gender and Judaism, illness, war, Haredi and Orthodox family life, and the lingering impact of the Holocaust, the contributors present unique, at times intensely personal, insights into how Jewishness intersects with other forms of identity and identification. In doing so, the volume deepens our understanding of Jewish women's experiences.
Heike Bauer is professor of modern literature and cultural history at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has published widely on sexuality and gender including The Hirschfeld Archives: Violence, Death, and Modern Queer Culture and a special issue on "The Visual Archives of Sex." Andrea Greenbaum is professor of English at Barry University in Florida. She is the author of several books including The Tropes of War: Visual Hyperbole and Spectacular Culture and Jews of South Florida. Sarah Lightman is an artist, writer, and curator. She is a faculty member at the Royal Drawing School in London. She is the author of The Book of Sarah and editor of the Eisner Award-winning volume Graphic Details: Jewish Women's Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews.
Table of Contents
Part One. Comics 1. Broken Eggs/Broken Dreams: The Art of Emily Steinberg Introduced by Samantha Baskind 2. From Surreality to Surreality: On Nancy K. Miller's Cancer Collages Introduced by Tahneer Oksman 3. Of Mice and Women: Miriam Libicki's "Sheretz" Introduced by F. K. Schoeman 4. Before Last Things: An Interview with Marissa Moss and Joshua Feder Introduced by Michael Green and MK Czerwiec 5. The Book of Sarah: Writing through the Past Introduced by Victoria Aarons 6. The Absent Body: Helen Blejerman's Lulu la sensationelle (2014) Introduced by Véronique Sina 7. Sharon Rudahl, Die Bubbeh Introduced by Margaret Galvan 8. On Deep Home, by The Surreal McCoy Introduced by Ariel Kahn Part Two. Interviews 9. "Where Their Feelings Begin and Mine End": Transgenerational Holocaust Witnessing in Amy Kurzweil's Flying Couch Sandra Chiritescu viii Contents 10. Drawing Life: A Talk with Rutu Modan Miriam Libicki 11. The Inimitable Trina Robbins Dominique Agri 12. Ilana Zeffren on Comics, Cats, and LGBTQ+ Life in Contemporary Israel Heike Bauer 13. A Good Monster: Emil Ferris on Living within a "Place of Profound Imagination" Andrea Greenbaum 14. Saint George's Tuches: An Interview with Nino Biniashvili Oded Na'aman Part Three. Essays 15. The Past, Lived and Imagined: Nostalgia in Jewish Women's Comics Jennifer Caplan 16. "He Was Just a Jew!" "So Am I.": The Queer Jewish Identity of DC Comics' Batwoman and Harley Quinn Megan Fowler 17. Bodies beyond Boundaries: Gender and Judaism in Contemporary British Jewish Women's Confessional Graphic Art Efraim Sicher 18. Religious Mommy Comics: Motherhood in Orthodox Jewish Women's Comics Noa Lea Cohn 19. A Family in Crisis: Collapsing Domestic Boundaries in Charlotte Salomon's Leben? Oder Theater? Sophie Hardach 20. The Challenges and Opportunities of Scholarly-Artistic Collaboration Mira Sucharov (text) and Rebecca Katz (art)
