Two decades after immigrating from Kiev to Chicago, Julia Alekseyeva found her great-grandmother’s hidden memoirs of a life spanning the Soviet 20th century. With input from comics scholar Hillary Chute, she turned a lifetime of secrets into a work of art.
Referenced in this Episode
Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution by Julia Alekseyeva
Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics by Hillary Chute
Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form by Hillary Chute
The work of graphic journalist Joe Sacco. See also Mr. Sacco’s presentation on comics and journalism at Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism.
For more information about Julia’s process, as well as discussion about the role of Jewish identity and the influence of Soviet visual culture on her work, listen to audio from her full public talk on Soviet Daughter.
Distinguished Professor of English and Art + Design, Northeastern University
Assistant Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies, University of Pennsylvania
