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Alison Bechdel

アリソン・ベクデル

Alison Bechdel

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1960-09-10 (Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, U.S.)
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Roman Catholic
Residence History
Beech Creek, Pennsylvania (childhood) → Manhattan, New York (moved 1981) → St. Paul, Minnesota (lived) → Bolton, Vermont (residence)

Career

Occupations
cartoonist, author, professor
Active Years
1983-
Affiliations
Yale University (Professor in the Practice), Seven Days (newspaper) (contributor), Vermont Cartoonist Laureate (title)
Influenced By
Virginia Woolf, Sigmund Freud, Donald Winnicott, Alice Miller
Influenced
The Bechdel test in film and cultural criticism, Contemporary and subsequent graphic novelists and feminist cartoonists

Education

Bard College at Simon's Rock
Studio arts and art history
Degree: A.A.
Period: 1978–1979
Year of Graduation: 1979
Country: United States
Left high school early; earned an Associate of Arts
Oberlin College
Studio arts and art history
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1979–1981
Year of Graduation: 1981
Country: United States
Earned a Bachelor of Arts

Awards

Time Magazine 10 Best Books (2006)
2006
Work: Fun Home
Organization: Time
Result: 選出
Eisner Award (Best Reality-Based Work)
2007
Work: Fun Home
Category: Best Reality-Based Work
Organization: San Diego Comic-Con (Eisner Awards)
Result: 受賞
Stonewall Book Award (Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award)
2007
Work: Fun Home
Organization: American Library Association (ALA)
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
2012
Organization: Guggenheim Foundation
Result: 受賞
Inkpot Award
2012
Organization: Comic-Con International (Inkpot Award)
Result: 受賞
Bill Whitehead Award (Lifetime Achievement)
2012
Organization: Publishing Triangle
Result: 受賞
MacArthur Fellowship
2014
Organization: MacArthur Fellows Program
Result: 受賞
Lambda Literary Board of Trustees Award
2014
Organization: Lambda Literary Foundation
Result: 受賞
Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media
2015
Organization: Erikson Institute / Austen Riggs Center
Result: 受賞
Harvey Awards Hall of Fame
2019
Organization: Harvey Awards
Result: 受賞(殿堂入り)
PEN Oakland – Josephine Miles Literary Award
2022
Work: The Secret to Superhuman Strength
Organization: PEN Oakland
Result: 受賞

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

2006 Autobiographical graphic novel / memoir 240 pages

An autobiographical graphic memoir tracing Bechdel's childhood, her relationship with her father and the years before and after his suicide, and her coming out.

familydeathsexualitymemoryliterary allusion
Adaptations
  • [Musical] Fun Home (musical) / Sam Gold (2013)

Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama

2012 Autobiographical graphic memoir

A layered memoir focusing on Bechdel's relationship with her mother, exploring selfhood, desire, and subjectivity with psychoanalytic references.

mother-daughter relationshipselfpsychoanalysismemory

The Secret to Superhuman Strength

2021 Memoir / comic essay

A memoir chronicling Bechdel's fascination with fitness, her engagement with various sports, and reflections on self-obstruction and growth.

physicalityself-observationaginghumor

Dykes to Watch Out For

1983 Comic strip / social commentary

A long-running strip depicting urban lesbian life and politics; the origin of what became known as the Bechdel test appears here.

LGBTQ+ communitypoliticseveryday satire

Spent

2025 Comic novel / graphic novel

A comic novel featuring a cartoonist (based on Bechdel) running a pygmy goat sanctuary in Vermont while attempting to write a book about capitalism; contains fictionalized details.

blurring of fiction and autobiographycritique of capitalismrural life

Bibliography

  • The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For (2008)
  • Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006)
  • Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama (2012)
  • The Secret to Superhuman Strength (2021)
  • Spent (2025)

Adaptations

  • Fun Home (stage musical, premiered Off-Broadway 2013, Broadway 2015)
  • Fun Home (film adaptation rights acquired; in development)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
autobiographical with frequent intellectual allusionsline-driven drawings with understated black humornarration that incorporates scholarly and psychoanalytic references
Recurring Motifs
family and father-daughter dynamicsmemory and recollectionsexuality and identityreferences to literature and psychoanalysis

Legacy

Alison Bechdel popularized autobiographical expression in graphic novels and significantly influenced discussions of gender representation through the Bechdel test; her work has been widely acclaimed in both academic and popular contexts and has received numerous awards.

Archives

  • Smith College Sophia Smith Collection (Alison Bechdel papers)

In Popular Culture

  • The Bechdel test (widely used metric in film and media criticism)
  • Stage musical adaptation of Fun Home and its Tony Award success, impacting theatre and music communities

Quotes

  • The secret subversive goal of my work is to show that women, not just lesbians, are regular human beings.
    Source: Interview (source: see collected references)

Trivia

  • The Bechdel test originally appeared as a joke in 'Dykes to Watch Out For'.
  • Her 2004 San Francisco same-sex marriage was later voided.
  • Fun Home was adapted into a Broadway musical that won multiple Tony Awards.