Original scientific paper

https://doi.org/10.20901/pm.59.4.06

Transgenerational Trauma in Comic Books: The Cases of Heimat and Sunday’s Child

Kosta Bovan orcid.org/0000-0002-5183-6065 ; Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb

Abstract

Transgenerational trauma refers to the situation where children are traumatized‎by the experiences of their (grand)parents. It is a unique combination of‎individual, familial, and collective (cultural) traumatic processes. The intertwining‎of these processes poses a particular representational challenge, one‎that could be overcome by the comics medium. It was proposed by various‎authors that the visual language of comics is particularly useful for portraying‎traumatic experiences, such as the fragmentation of time, trauma’s belatedness‎and the haunting presence of the past. In this article I analyse two‎graphic novels, Heimat: A German Family Album by Nora Krug and Sunday’s‎Child by Serena Katt, both of which explore the transgenerational perpetrator‎trauma, and the roles the authors’ families had during the Second World War.‎I show how the authors use representational and aesthetic choices that help‎them convey the process of fact-searching as well as emotional engagement‎and imagination that is characteristic for transgenerational trauma.‎

Keywords

Comics; Graphic Novel; Trauma; Transgenerational Trauma; Perpetrator Trauma

Hrčak ID:

288202

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/288202

Publication date:

22.12.2022.

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