The Intersection of Dwarfism and Gender in Alisa’s Tale: Raising Awareness through Graphic Narrative

Abstract

This note explores how experiences of people with dwarfism are explored in the graphic narrative Alisa’s Tale (A short story) by Al Davison. The purpose of Alisa’s tale is for young people to emphasise the lived experiences of people with dwarfism. This demonstrates how the graphic narrative uses imagery to convey the everyday social and spatial encounters experienced by people with dwarfism and subsequently Alisa’s experiences of psycho-emotional disablism. Unlike conventional forms of awareness raising, the graphic narrative forces the reader to stare at the dwarf body and witness the common reactions towards it through multimodal forms of representations. Graphic narratives provide expressive possibilities for vivid meaning-making through multimodal forms of representations (Garland-Thomson, 2016). Unlike conventional stories, the use of graphics within Alisa’s tale aids in situating the reader within Alisa’s perspective. This helps to demonstrate the world seen through the gaze of a young woman with dwarfism and position the average sized person as problematic. In the narrative, the average sized people who react negatively towards Alisa are depicted as monsters. According to Garland-Thomson (2016), the most distinct representational opportunity comics offer is hyperbole. Presenting average sized people as monsters helps to situate them as villains. How the narrative uses imagery to construct other people, who react negatively to Alisa’s presence, as monsters do two things. Firstly, as a reader with dwarfism, I can relate to the story. For average sized readers, it helps them to question their ableist beliefs and reactions towards people with dwarfism. According to Foss, Gray and Whalen (2016), graphic narratives offer the unique potential for transforming our understanding of disability in truly profound ways. This note will demonstrate how graphic narratives are beneficial in raising awareness about dwarfism.