Graphic testimony and visual trace: the comics diaries of Amal Al Nakhala
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5902/2176148595194Keywords:
Comics, Trauma, Testimony, Memory, DiaryAbstract
This article seeks to outline a conceptualization of testimony in comics. Its objective is to investigate the ethical and aesthetic implications behind the act of bearing witness in a graphic narrative by bringing together the literariness of traumatic content and the subjectivity of its form. To this end, we conducted a bibliographic review on trauma, testimony, and comics, drawing on authors such as Giorgio Agamben (2008), Caruth (2026), Dori Laub (2013), Michael Rothberg (2000), Marianne Hirsch (1992), and Davies (2020). By outlining theoretical foundations for comics as a media form for testimony, we propose advancing the debate and considering graphic narrative not merely as a mean of representation, but also as a particular form of testimony. Drawing on Georges Didi-Huberman (2020), Hillary Chute (2016), Mickwitz (2016), and Muanis (2024), we seek to think about graphic image and comics as a particular form of materializing traumatic memory. To illustrate the discussion, we analyze the comics diary of the Palestinian artist Amal Al Nakhala, created between 2023 and 2024 during the bombings in Gaza.
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