Somewhere between Currere and Ficto-currere, with my Teacher The Near-Sighted Monkey

In this paper, I explore artist and teacher Lynda Barry’s practice of autobifictionalography as a kind of third practice at the intersection of currere (Pinar & Grumet, 1976/2015) and ficto-currere (McNulty, 2018, 2019). I position making autobifictionalographic comics, in which memory and imagination are intertwined, as a form of inquiry that can enable one to (re)construct the self while confronting (and even embracing) the limits of self-representation. This speculative, subversive, arts-based form of inquiry can implicate the autobiographical even as intentional gaps, traces, and inconsistencies play with notions of self-representation and generate fantastical, even monstrous, characters and situations. I explore currere and ficto-currere and situate my work in comics-based inquiry, analyzing an example from a comic of my own as I consider the limits of autobiographical inquiry. Finally, I suggest that comics rendered in reflective practice might offer alternative, expansive modes of representation that invite relationship and dialogue.