The Trauma Graphic Novel
Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies Series

The end of the twentieth century and the turn of the new millennium witnessed an unprecedented flood of traumatic narratives and testimonies of suffering in literature and the arts. Graphic novels, free at last from long decades of stern censorship, helped explore these topics by developing a new subgenre: the trauma graphic novel. This book seeks to analyze this trend through the consideration of five influential graphic novels in English. Works by Paul Hornschemeier, Joe Sacco, Art Spiegelman, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons will be considered as illustrative examples of the representation of individual, collective, and political traumas. This book provides a link between the contemporary criticism of Trauma Studies and the increasingly important world of comic books and graphic novels.

Introduction

1. Through Traumatized Eyes: Trauma and Visual Stream-of-Consciousness Techniques in Paul Hornschemeier’s Mother, Come Home

2. Joe Sacco’s Documentary Graphic Novels Palestine and Footnotes in Gaza: The Thin Line between Trauma and Propaganda

3. From "Maus" to Metamaus: Art Spiegelman’s Constellation of Holocaust Textimonies

4. Greek Romance, Alternative History and Political Trauma in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen

Conclusion

Andrés Romero-Jódar is an Independent Scholar.