“What’s in a name?”

This chapter examines the roles of myth and myth-making in Anke Feuchtenberger’s graphic art. Looking at “Rosen” and “No Roses,” two short comics published in Mutterkuchen (1995), first through the semiotic framework of myth established by Roland Barthes and then in the context of Mary Daly’s theories of the function of myth in hegemonic meaning-making, my analysis of these two graphic narratives reveals how Feuchtenberger creates antimyths to counter popular notions of heteronormative romantic love. Engaging the symbol of the rose in “Rosen,” Feuchtenberger calls forth its associations with love and romance, only to deconstruct these conventions through the contradictions represented in the graphic narrative’s verbal and visual narration, before tearing apart its signification all together in the following graphic narrative, “No Roses.” Feuchtenberger thereby presents the reader with stories rife with clichés and metaphors, which upon deeper analysis come undone, illustrating an inherent ambivalence at the very core of the symbolism of heteronormative romantic love.