Laughing in the Wrong Places: Daniel Clowes and the Danger of Nostalgia
type: CreativeWork
description: 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 nostalgia and its correlation to American politics. I take a unique approach to this essay, placing my narrative voice in a fictional post-apocalyptic scenario. I did this because I am a fiction writer and this position felt natural, but also I wanted to emphasize the real stakes facing the United States in our upcoming election. In this essay, I focus on blending visual and literary analysis when looking at Clowes’ work. This is a subtextual argument that I am making in terms of how we consider comics and graphic narratives, as much of the source material I looked at that was specific to comics leaned heavily in the literary direction and neglected visual cues for interpretation.
abstract: 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 nostalgia and its correlation to American politics. I take a unique approach to this essay, placing my narrative voice in a fictional post-apocalyptic scenario. I did this because I am a fiction writer and this position felt natural, but also I wanted to emphasize the real stakes facing the United States in our upcoming election. In this essay, I focus on blending visual and literary analysis when looking at Clowes’ work. This is a subtextual argument that I am making in terms of how we consider comics and graphic narratives, as much of the source material I looked at that was specific to comics leaned heavily in the literary direction and neglected visual cues for interpretation.
author: Cassidy, Liam
language: English
keywords: comics, Daniel Clowes, nostalgia, illustration, politics, Eightball, Monica, graphic novel, apocalypse, comedy, Art and Design, Fiction, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media
date published: 2024-05-08T07:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:12:17Z
provider: Washington University in St. Louis
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Washington University in St. Louis