Graduation Term
2019
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of English
Committee Chair
Jan Susina
Abstract
This thesis examines two graphic memoirs: Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons (2002), and David Small’s Stitches (2009) to elucidate the connections between the duality of narrative in graphic memoirs and the subject of childhood trauma. I begin by observing how the inexpressible memories of childhood trauma become expressible through the platform of graphic narrative that allows the authors to illustrate rather than verbalize the memories. Following this analysis, I examine the aspects of embodiment and materiality in the two memoirs demonstrating how the form of graphic narrative enables the authors to effectively bring back their memories and become the witnesses of their own traumas. Finally, I explore the conventions of sequential art explaining how the traumatic memories of the past get fragmented and fictionalized and connecting it to the ethics of life narrative.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Jang, Nina Hanee, "When Inexpressible Becomes Expressible: the Duality of Narrative in Graphic Memoirs of Growing up and Trauma" (2019). Theses and Dissertations. 1129.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/1129
DOI
http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2019.Jang.N