Discordance, duplicity, and desire: conjoined twins in Dame Darcy's Meat Cake. Issue 5 (3rd September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kerns, Susan Santha
• Is Part Of: Journal of graphic novels & comics. Volume 8:Issue 5(2017)
• Page Start: 494
• Page End: 506
• Publication Date: 2017-09-03
• Subjects: Conjoined twins -- Siamese twins -- disability -- sideshow -- anger; Graphic novels -- Periodicals; Comic books, strips, etc -- Periodicals; Popular culture -- Periodicals; Art, Modern -- 21st century -- Periodicals; Art, Modern; Comic books, strips, etc; Graphic novels; Popular culture; Comicroman; Comic; Periodicals; 741.5
• DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2017.1355827
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2150-4857

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines the characterisation of conjoined twins Hindrance and Perfidia within the fantastic story world of Dame Darcy's Meat Cake . These comics expand roles and make room for twinned characters on terms differentiated from the constraints of past visual depictions of conjoined twins. The fanciful nature of this female-centric world normalises the twins' anomalous bodies, thus allowing them to explore emotions and actions typically deemed off limits. Furthermore, connections are made between Hindrance and Perfidia and actual conjoined twins to indicate when Darcy's representations speak back to 'freak' histories. Ultimately, via expressions of anger and sexuality and constructions of alternative female communities for both normative-bodied people and their conjoined brethren, the twins of Meat Cake enjoy a fluidity of identity rarely allowed in visual treatments of 'freaked' and Othered bodies.