1/1/15

Drawing in Drag by Marie Duval (ISBN 978-1906012984), is a 42 page graphic novel, drawn in the style of nineteenth-century cartoonist Marie Duval.

During the nineteenth century, writers and artists in the leisure publishing industries frequently wrote and drew under pseudonyms. They did this to either project a saleable identity or to dissociate themselves from their outputs. This included the practice of pseudonymously changing gender.
In 2018, Grennan discovered a book illustrated by nineteenth-century cartoonist and actor Marie Duval, under the male pseudonym ‘Ambrose Clarke’.
This discovery occasioned a research question: what (and how) would Duval draw, if she revived in the Manchester of 2018? The research required a comparison of the nineteenth and twenty-first-century city, an analysis of Duval’s urban topics and her visual style, with an analysis of re-gendering in the leisure industries. Drawing in Drag by Marie Duval provided a new resource for historic and stylistic analysis of Duval’s drawings, for analysis of re-gendering in leisure cultures, a demonstration of historiography as a method of analysis and the wide public and academic dissemination of insights.

Research insights
The research demonstrates the capacity of historiography as a method of analysis. It indexes the significance of pseudonymous re-gendering, as a strategy for exciting audience interest. It makes an analytical comparison between leisure industries in the nineteenth and twenty-first centuries. It reveals a previously unknown aspect of Duval’s work (her use of a male pseudonym) and establishes its historic significance.

Dissemination (see Supplementary information above)
Drawing in Drag by Marie Duval substantiated an international programme of academic dissemination: authoring one academic book and one conference paper. It also substantiated an international programme of public dissemination: eight public exhibitions, one public event, one public lecture, seven public workshops and 3 items of media commentary.