Comics, Memory, and Trauma
ImageTexT, a peer-reviewed, open access journal with a focus on interdisciplinary comics studies, has published an article by Spanish faculty member Sarah D. Harris.
Harris's article is part of ImageText's forum "Traumics," or trauma and comics, in the journal's most recent volume.
The article, "'I had not dared to remember': Trauma and Historical Memory in Recent Spanish Comics," examines the position of a "noteworthy group of Spanish graphic narratives that represent, recover stories of the war and postwar, and mourn the loss of historical memory" within the larger "memory boom" in Spain at the turn of the millennium. Harris begins by contextualizing the conflicting interests of trauma and memory, and goes on to argue that "Comics allow a non-experience to be real, even if simultaneously present and absent." She also explains that, "In each case," of the comics in question, "authors and artists have expressed their intention that the stories [...] be considered part of a larger community experience shared by many others, even a whole generation." She uses examples from Miguel Gallardo's 1997 Un largo silencio [A Long Silence], Carlos Giménez's 2007 collection Todo Paracuellos, Antonio Altarriba and Kim's 2009 El arte de volar [The Art of Flying], and Paco Roca's 2013 Los surcos del azar [The Furrows of Chance].
ImageTexT aims to advance the academic study of an emerging and diverse canon of imagetexts. Chief among these are comic books, comic strips, and animations. Under the guidance of an editorial board of scholars from a variety of disciplines, ImageTexT publishes solicited and peer-reviewed papers that investigate the material, historical, theoretical, and cultural implications of visual textuality.