I will be making a close textual analysis of the primary texts, analysing how the authors use image and word in expressing family relationships. In doing so, I will be drawing on the growing body of analysis of the graphic novel and on the substantial body of psychoanalytic work on mother-daughter relationships. My research will also be based on academic reviews of the different primary texts and online journals.
In a practical sense, to support this analysis I will access the collections held in the national library of Luxembourg, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and the Landesbibliothek Tirol. In addition, I will keep in touch with my supervisor, mostly via e-mail. My supervisor has also kindly offered to send me texts that I do not have ready access to. We have agreed that I send her drafts at the end of each month.
The aim of my research is to get a better understanding of the medium of the graphic novel, given its growing significance in mainstream culture and within education. By writing this thesis, I am also aiming to demonstrate that the graphic novel is a very suitable medium for a memoir providing a highly visual alternative to prose texts without neglecting the written word.