46 | AUGUST 10 • 2023
I
n a little more than one
decade, Jewish women have
authored dozens of book-
length graphic works focused
on their personal lives as they
navigate the conditions of
modern Jewish life.
Consumers of so-called
“comics” have long appreciat-
ed the many Jewish men who
contributed words and draw-
ings to the genre. Since Will
Eisner’s influential A Contract
with God, those authors have
used the works to express their
concerns as Jews. Now, Jewish
women — seemingly all of a
sudden — have begun pro-
ducing a profound library of
works on contemporary Jewish
life.
Victoria Aarons’ Memory
Spaces (Wayne State University
Press, 2023) focuses on a few
of the most outstanding of
these works. Aarons opens
with observations about the
genre of graphic narrative.
Many of these works do not
fit neatly into the category of
fiction. Though Aarons some-
times uses the term “graphic
novels,” she prefers “graphic
narrative,” for good reasons.
The genre includes biographies
and autobiographies, generally
considered non-fiction, and
other works that fall between
the categories, partially fic-
tionalized autobiographies or
autobiographies with dream
sequences.
Graphic narratives convey
time as space. The events get
inscribed in panels, usually set
off with borders and gutters
between each panel, that guide
us to read them sequentially.
But we always have the full set
of panels before us; as we read
on, we remain aware of the
previous set of panels, and can
easily back up into the past. A
prose work gives less freedom
to go back; the author sets the
sequence of events and we
ordinarily keep on reading.
Videos artists have even stron-
ger control of the sequence
of events. Graphic narratives,
though, allow us to look back
easily. The whole narrative lies
exposed as we move forward.
Autobiographies in any
medium present at least two
versions of the author: The
author puts a version out
for the audience, but, as she
creates this edited version of
herself, she does not complete-
ly hide behind the scenes. In
graphic narratives, each panel
contains an additional version
of the author as presented,
so that the finished work has
a multitude of takes on the
author. Sometimes the author
of a graphic narrative makes
use of this effect by placing
multiple versions of herself in
the same panel.
Aarons then focuses on
how Jewish identity
impacts graphic narratives by
women: Jewish identity, even
in the modern age, involves
memory and adaptation. Each
Jew receives impressions of the
Jewish past, experiencing them
as attractive or problematic.
Choosing some predecessors
as role models, and rejecting
others, modifying traditions to
a new reality or rejecting them,
each Jew forms his or her own
relationship with Jewishness.
Modern Jewish women may
struggle with available models
from an ancient, patriarchal
system that still belong to us.
ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS
VARY
Aarons then focuses on specif-
ic artists of graphic narratives.
In The Book of Sarah (2019),
British artist Sarah Lightman
retells the biblical story of our
matriarch, who yearned for a
child, received a Divine prom-
ise of a child, and miraculously
gave birth in her old age; but
Lightman also tells her own
story — “Since I was not a
mother until age 39, and, in
contrast to the biblical women,
I never received a promise of a
ARTS&LIFE
BOOK REVIEW
Victoria Aarons explores visualizing identity in
Jewish women’s graphic narratives.
Memory Spaces
LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER