Overview

"American comics reflect the distinct sensibilities and experiences of the Jewish American men who played an outsized role in creating them, but what about the contributions of Jewish women? Focusing on the visionary work of seven contemporary female Jewish cartoonists, Tahneer Oksman draws a remarkable connection between innovations in modes of graphic storytelling and the unstable, contradictory, and ambiguous figurations of the Jewish self in the postmodern era. Oksman isolates the dynamic Jewishness that connects each frame in the autobiographical comics of Aline Kominsky Crumb, Vanessa Davis, Miss Lasko-Gross, Lauren Weinstein, Sarah Glidden, Miriam Libicki, and Liana Finck. Rooted in a conception of identity based as much on rebellion as identification and belonging, these artists' representations of Jewishness take shape in the spaces between how we see ourselves and how others see us. They experiment with different representations and affiliations without forgetting that identity ties the self to others. Stemming from Kominsky Crumb's iconic 1989 comic ""Nose Job,"" in which her alter ego refuses to assimilate through cosmetic surgery, Oksman's study is an arresting exploration of invention in the face of the pressure to disappear."

Full Product Details

Author:   Tahneer Oksman
Publisher:   Columbia University Press
Imprint:   Columbia University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 17.80cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 25.40cm
Weight:   0.723kg
ISBN:  

9780231172745

ISBN 10:   0231172745
Pages:   296
Publication Date:   16 February 2016
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Language:   English

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction: To Unaffiliate Jewishly 1. My Independent Jewish Monster Temperament : The Serial Selves of Aline Kominsky Crumb 2. What Would Make Me the Most 'Myself' : Self-Creation and Self-Exile in Vanessa Davis's Diary and Autobiographical Comics 3. I Always Want to Know Everything True : Memory, Adolescence, and Belonging in the Graphic Memoirs of Miss Lasko-Gross and Lauren Weinstein 4. But you don't live here, so what's the dilemma? : Birthright and Accountability in the Geographics of Sarah Glidden and Miriam Libicki Conclusion- Where are they now? : Translation and Renewal in Liana Finck's A Bintel Brief Notes Bibliography Index

Reviews

A careful and nuanced exploration of the complexities of identity and identification, How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses? is an excellent and ground-breaking work, invaluable to scholars of Jewish studies, comics studies, and women's studies. -- Jeremy Dauber, Director, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University Tahneer Oksman's book is an important work, one that examines the cartoonist's art as it intersects with identity, gender, time and place. As a cartoonist who is a woman and who happens to be a non-Jew, I love this book, and completely identify with Oksman's theories of the deep intersectionality of these issues. She examines the beauty of how cartoons and graphic narrative can uncover difficult, personal ideas so masterfully. Oksman helps the reader see the art and struggles of a group of talented women as they search for honest identity, and a place to call home. -- Liza Donnelly, Cartoonist and Writer An original study that charts how three indisputably fascinating subjects--feminism, Judaism, and comics--intersect today. In Tahneer Oksman's analysis, the word-and-image form, comics, and the identities it presents on its pages are connected: they both resist overdetermination, refiguring traditional categories and taxonomic pressures. A unique and compelling addition to several different fields. -- Hillary L. Chute, University of Chicago

A careful and nuanced exploration of the complexities of identity and identification, How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses? is an excellent and ground-breaking work, invaluable to scholars of Jewish studies, comics studies, and women's studies. -- Jeremy Dauber, Director, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University

A careful and nuanced exploration of the complexities of identity and identification, How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses? is an excellent and ground-breaking work, invaluable to scholars of Jewish studies, comics studies, and women's studies. -- Jeremy Dauber, Director, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University As a cartoonist who is a woman and who happens to be a non-Jew, I love this book, and completely identify with Oksman's theories of the deep intersectionality of these issues. She examines the beauty of how cartoons and graphic narrative can uncover difficult, personal ideas so masterfully. Oksman helps the reader see the art and struggles of a group of talented women as they search for honest identity and a place to call home. -- Liza Donnelly, cartoonist, author of When Do They Serve the Wine?: The Folly, Flexibility, and Fun of Being a Woman An original study that charts how three indisputably fascinating subjects-feminism, Judaism, and comics-intersect today. In Oksman's analysis, the word-and-image form, comics, and the identities it presents on its pages are connected: they both resist overdetermination, refiguring traditional categories and taxonomic pressures. A unique and compelling addition to several different fields. -- Hillary L. Chute, University of Chicago, author of Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics A brilliant analysis. Oksman's readings are as nuanced and inventive as the artists she describes. -- Joyce Antler, Brandeis University For those interested in the graphic form, [Oksman] provides ample observations and insights into the construction of female Jewish identity. -- Ada Brunstein Jewish Book Council

A careful and nuanced exploration of the complexities of identity and identification, How Come Boys Get to Keep Their Noses? is an excellent and ground-breaking work, invaluable to scholars of Jewish studies, comics studies, and women's studies. -- Jeremy Dauber, Director, Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, Columbia University As a cartoonist who is a woman and who happens to be a non-Jew, I love this book, and completely identify with Oksman's theories of the deep intersectionality of these issues. She examines the beauty of how cartoons and graphic narrative can uncover difficult, personal ideas so masterfully. Oksman helps the reader see the art and struggles of a group of talented women as they search for honest identity and a place to call home. -- Liza Donnelly, cartoonist, author of When Do They Serve the Wine?: The Folly, Flexibility, and Fun of Being a Woman An original study that charts how three indisputably fascinating subjects-feminism, Judaism, and comics-intersect today. In Oksman's analysis, the word-and-image form, comics, and the identities it presents on its pages are connected: they both resist overdetermination, refiguring traditional categories and taxonomic pressures. A unique and compelling addition to several different fields. -- Hillary L. Chute, University of Chicago, author of Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics A brilliant analysis. Oksman's readings are as nuanced and inventive as the artists she describes. -- Joyce Antler, Brandeis University

Author Information

Tahneer Oksman is assistant professor and director of the Writing Program at Marymount Manhattan College. She has published articles in a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, Studies in Comics, and Studies in American Jewish Literature, as well as the Forward, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Cleaver Magazine, where she is the graphic narratives reviews editor.

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