Abstract
This chapter asserts that there exists a shared mode of embodiment between diary and comics life writing. Whereas comics provide access to the embodied act of their creation through the line, the serial entries of the diary afford a window into their writer’s daily allowance of marks. In The Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner (2002, 2015) and Lynda Barry’s Cruddy (1999), the diary becomes a surrogate body for each protagonist that stands between the reader and authors both fictional and real. Considering the diaristic conventions of the “keep out or else” notices included in each text, as well as the fantasies of self-harm each protagonist engages, this chapter excavates the possibilities and boundaries of such a performative, textual surrogacy.
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Miller, R.R. (2018). Keep Out, or Else: Diary as Body in The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Cruddy. In: Ahmed, M., Crucifix, B. (eds) Comics Memory. Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91746-7_6
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