Reconsidering Religious Gender Normativity in Graphic Novel Adaptations: A Quantitative and Qualitative Case Study

• In Event: Theorizing Multimodality Through Children's and Youths' Perceptions and Experiences

Abstract

Objectives
I explore the impact multimodality has on religious Jewish teens’ conceptions of gender normativity outside of the classroom. Using three graphic novel adaptations of traditional Jewish texts where adapters took a critical stance on potentially misogynistic narratives (Crumb, 2009; Deutsch, 2017; Waldman, 2005), I explore the way image and text along with secular and Jewish literacies are interwoven to shape the reader’s understanding of religion and gender.

Theoretical Perspectives
I employed New Literacies Studies, “NLS” (Street, 2003), particularly considering its prior applications to studies in Jewish literacy (Lehmann, 2008). NLS posits that there is no single objective form of literacy. There are instead numerous literacies, each being socially bound and reflective of a particular community’s power structure (Collins & Blot, 2003). Within research of Jewish education, NLS has been used to highlight how Jewish literacy, possessing different features from literacies taught in ELA classes, shape and are shaped by the power dynamic inherent within Jewish education and society (Cashman, 2015; El-Or, 2002; Lehmann, 2008). NLS thus allowed me to consider what modalities and literacies were used by participants reading graphic novel adaptations and how those tools were used to create interpretations that considered gender in religious society.

Methods/Data Sources
Using surveys, think-alouds, and semi-structured interviews collected from 15 adolescents who self-identified as Modern Orthodox Jewish women, I applied Epistemic Network Analysis (Shaffer et al., 2009) to map how discrete skills and literacies were used during think-alouds, particularly as readers voiced opinions about gender in Judaism. Then, Constructivist Grounded Theory was used to consider how participants used certain literacies to frame themselves, rabbis, or the graphic novel adapter as expert or authoritative as their interpretations were formed.

Findings
Visual elements found in each adaptation sparked personal reflections from participants on topics that are often explicitly or implicitly suppressed by social norms regarding gender normativity in Judaism. Additionally, visual elements in graphic novels brought together literacies often siloed in particular disciplines, creating unique analyses and opinions. In this way, participants did not relate to graphic novel adaptations of Jewish texts as strictly Jewish artifacts, but as American ones as well, complicating their analyses.

Significance
As different media present educators with different opportunities and challenges when it comes to teaching content (Jewitt, 2008), they similarly re-present challenges to the text in new and different ways. Students are generally taught to address verbal gender-conscious challenges levied against Jewish texts; they are less trained in navigating visually-based critiques. Additionally, as Modern Orthodox Jews generally approach gender equality and egalitarianism as Jews differently from the way they approach gender equality and egalitarianism as Americans (Fishman, 1995; Hartman, 2007), the bringing together of often siloed literacies highlight the social considerations readers encounter when forming opinions. Graphic novels thus are robust tools that can allow readers to explore understandings of self and society more fully, particularly relating to gender.

Author

• Talia Hurwich, Drexel University