Drawing Herstory : An Exploration of Trauma in Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do and Keum Suk Gendry-Kim's Grass

Details

Supervisors

Bragard, Véronique

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en langues et lettres modernes, orientation générale, à finalité approfondie

Abstract

Since the publication of Maus by Art Spiegelman, trauma became a recurrent theme in graphic novels, a medium that seems particularly suitable for the transmission of stories filled with heavy topics. However, most of the comics about those historical topics are from a male perspective, and the voices of women are usually on the margin. Therefore, this present dissertation will focus on two graphic novels written by women, which focus on a womanly experience of history: herstory. Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do and Keum Suk Gendry-Kim’s Grass will be analysed under the lens of female trauma and how it has been represented despite the common idea that trauma is unrepresentable. Viljoen’s theory of ‘dark’ writing, which counters the traditional theories about trauma, explains that the ineffable can in fact be represented, however, not faced directly but conveyed visually so as to make it an experience for the reader. The first part of this dissertation focuses on the historical contextualisation as well as the explanation on how, from their female perspective, both graphic novels move the traditional frame, bringing what was at the margin at the very centre of their stories. The second part focuses on analysing Thi Bui’s work and how violence and pain are conveyed. The last part of this dissertation focuses on Gendry-Kim’s work and by which means she makes pain and sorrow palpable.