The Graphic Novels of Mariko and Jillian Tamaki

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Akash Belsare (University of Illinois at Springfield)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Cousins and co-authors, writer Mariko Tamaki and illustrator Jillian Tamaki have collaborated on three young/new adult graphic novels to date, including

Skim

(2008),

This One Summer

(2014), and

Roaming

(2023). From queer, Canadian born, and mixed-race creators – Mariko being of Japanese and Jewish descent, while Jillian is of Japanese and Egyptian descent – the Tamaki coming-of-age comics collectively engage with issues of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, girlhood, adolescence, and mental health. The Tamakis take an intersectional feminist approach to the traditional bildungsroman genre, not merely through the character development of their female protagonists, but by subverting its assimilatory conventions. As Mariko details in 

The Horn Book Magazine

, theirs is a…

3463 words

Citation: Belsare, Akash. "The Graphic Novels of Mariko and Jillian Tamaki". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 August 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19760, accessed 31 October 2024.]

19760 The Graphic Novels of Mariko and Jillian Tamaki 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.