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Dressing Eve: Re-drawing Biblical Women through Comics

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Speaker
Dr Sarah Lightman

Jewish women have been at the forefront of feminist autobiographical comics since the 1970’s as they challenged sexism in popular culture. But how have they revised misogynistic images and stories closer to home? Sarah Lightman will illustrate how Sharon Rudahl in her bildungsroman ‘The Star Sapphire’, Miriam Katin in her Holocaust memoir, We Are on Our Own, and her own graphic novel, The Book of Sarah, transform biblical narratives and images to reflect their own, lived, experiences.

Sarah Lightman is an artist, writer and Faculty at The Royal Drawing School, London. She attended the Slade School of Art for her BA and MFA, University of Glasgow for her PhD and was an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London (2018-21). She edited the multi-award-winning Graphic Details: Jewish Women’s Confessional Comics in Essays and Interviews (McFarland, 2014), published her autobiographical graphic novel, The Book of Sarah (Myriad Editions and Penn State UP, 2019) and co-edited Jewish Women in Comics: Bodies and Borders (Syracuse UP, 2023).

Sarah Lightman, The Book of Sarah page 193, (Oxford: Myriad Editions 2019) © Sarah Lightman
Sarah Lightman, The Book of Sarah page 193, (Oxford: Myriad Editions 2019) © Sarah Lightman
Sarah Lightman, The Book of Sarah page 194, (Oxford: Myriad Editions 2019) © Sarah Lightman
Sarah Lightman, The Book of Sarah page 194, (Oxford: Myriad Editions 2019) © Sarah Lightman
Sarah Lightman, The Book of Sarah page 231, (Oxford: Myriad Editions 2019) © Sarah Lightman
Sarah Lightman, The Book of Sarah page 231, (Oxford: Myriad Editions 2019) © Sarah Lightman
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Sharon Rudahl, The Star Sapphire (1975) © Sharon Rudahl
Miriam Katin, We Are on Our Own, (Montreal:Drawn and Quarterly 2006) © Miriam Katin
Miriam Katin, We Are on Our Own, (Montreal:Drawn and Quarterly 2006) © Miriam Katin
Miriam Katin, We Are on Our Own, (Montreal:Drawn and Quarterly 2006) © Miriam Katin
Miriam Katin, We Are on Our Own, (Montreal:Drawn and Quarterly 2006) © Miriam Katin
Miriam Katin, We Are on Our Own, (Montreal:Drawn and Quarterly 2006) © Miriam Katin
Miriam Katin, We Are on Our Own, (Montreal:Drawn and Quarterly 2006) © Miriam Katin

This season’s lecture series seeks to explore the connection of visual narratives in the context of beauty, ugliness and morality with representations of Jews and Jewishness in the Western world from the Middle Ages to the present day. We aim to examine the subject from different historical, social and artistic perspectives ranging from medieval mythology to Orientalism, Zionism, Feminism or modern aesthetics, and through the lens of a selection of diverse media including painting, photography and comics.

The remaining lectures this season will be held at Senate House, Malet St, London WC1E 7HU, and will also be available on Zoom.

Admission is free. Lectures will begin promptly at 6.30pm. Latecomers may not be admitted.

Overview of the 2023 Lecture Series

2023 Lecture Series Flyer (PDF)

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