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Art and Design Commons

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Interdisciplinary Arts and Media

Washington University in St. Louis

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Illustration

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Art and Design

Laughing In The Wrong Places: Daniel Clowes And The Danger Of Nostalgia, Liam Cassidy May 2024

Laughing In The Wrong Places: Daniel Clowes And The Danger Of Nostalgia, Liam Cassidy

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This essay explores the relationship between art objects and our past, narrowing in on nostalgia as a malevolent force in American culture that will lead to its eventual downfall. Focusing on Daniel Clowes’ latest graphic novel Monica as a case study, I demonstrate how graphic stories like this seek to reflect rather than interpret, and are often more closely aligned to the creator’s biography than an attempt at broad strokes or political pandering. The essay uses interviews with Clowes at various points of his career, reviews of Monica, academic essays on Clowes, as well as articles and books dissecting …


The Dark House And Its Inhabitants, Emily Bielski May 2023

The Dark House And Its Inhabitants, Emily Bielski

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

From the inception of the genre, Gothic horror has been fixated on the domestic space in distress. This essay explores domestic archetypes and roles of the Gothic novel, serving as a “tour of the house”, analyzing the iconography of the dark castle, and how it externalizes and exacerbates the fears and behaviors of its inhabitants. The power dynamic of the household is starkly divided by the expectations and authority of masculine and feminine figures. In turn the “house” becomes a vehicle for the anxieties of the inhabitants—both experienced and inflicted—regarding gender, sexuality, isolation, and abuse. Exploration of the visual and …