Research Article
Plurality Emerging from the Gutters of Comics: Autobiographical Graphic Novel as a Site of Prosthetic
Abstract
Interest in memory has been present long before modern times. However, the tension between forgetfulness induced by modernity and the opportunities for artificial memory has significantly contributed to the growing interest in memory today. Moreover, it is possible to observe common themes across different periods from various perspectives. In this context, the memory path from Aristotle's concept of anamnesis to Landsberg's notion of prosthetic memory, framed by the contexts of image, sensation, and socialization, forms the foundation of this study. The following comics and graphic novels are proposed for inclusion in the prosthetic memory framework as paradigm shifters, due to their non-indexical, iconographic structures and autobiographical narratives which portray the everyday. Rather than undermine reality, the subjective narratives rooted in the ordinary create opportunities for prosthetic connections, thus broadening the scope of testimony and negotiation. The autobiographical graphic novel, which is the focus of this study, serves as a visual metaphor for memory narratives. Its narrative style avoids aestheticizing reality and instead conveys it by stripping it of traditional realistic representations. In this context, five autobiographical graphic novels produced after 2000 are analyzed through multimodal discourse analysis. The goal is to explore the potential of prosthetic memory—memories that are not directly experienced but can be imagined through narration—using examples centered on women's stories about gender.
Keywords
References
- Ahmed, Maaheen ve Crucifix, Benoît (2018). “Coda: A User Guide to Comics Memory.” Comics Memory. Archives and Styles. Maaheen Ahmed ve Benoît Crucifix (der.) içinde. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 281-285.
- Aristoteles (2022). Anımsama ve Bağlantılı Anımsama Üzerine (Peri Mnemes kai Anamneseos). Çev. Lale Levin Basut ve Saffet Babür. İstanbul: BilgeSu Yayıncılık.
- Assman, Jan (2018). Kültürel Bellek. Eski Yüksek Kültürlerde Yazı, Hatırlama ve Politik Kimlik. Çev. Ayşe Tekin. İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.
- Barry, Lynda (2008). What it is. Quebec: Drawn and Quarterly.
- Bauer, Heike (2014). “Vital Lines Drawn From Books: Difficult Feelings in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Are You My Mother?” Journal of Lesbian Studies, 18(3): 266-281. doi: 10.1080/10894160.2014.896614
- Beaty, Bart (2011). “Selective Mutual Reinforcement in the Comics of Chester Brown, Joe Matt, and Seth.” Graphic Subjects: Critical Essays on Autobiography and Graphic Novels. M. Chaney (der.) içinde. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 247-259.
- Bechdel, Alison (2007). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Brown, Kieron (2021). “Play and Playfulness in Lynda Barry’s What It Is”. Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 12(1): 127-148.
- Bui, Thi (2017). The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir. New York: Abrams Books.
- Chute, Hillary (2010). Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Chute, Hillary (2011). “Comics Form and Narrating Lives.” Profession, 1: 107-117.
- Cvetkovich, Ann (2008). “Drawing the Archive in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.” WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, 36(1&2): 111-128. doi: 10.1353/wsq.0.0037
- Davies, Caitlin (2021). "I want to define myself by what I am instead of what I am not": Examining Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary US Graphic Memoirs. [MRes American Studies, University of Nottingham].
- Domínguez Jeria, P. ve Muñoz, M. (2012). “Expressions of Subjectivity: Recent Historical Events Represented in Twenty-First-Century Chilean Autobiographical Comics.” Identity and History in Non-anglophone Comics. Harriet E.H. Earle ve Martin Lund (der.) içinde. New York: Routledge. 239-259.
- Duncan, Randy ve Smith, Matthew J. (2017). “How the Graphic Novel Works.” The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel. Stephan E. Tabachnick (der.) içinde. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 30-58.
- El Refaie, Elisabeth (2012). Autobiographical Comics. Life Writing in Pictures. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
- García, Santiago (2015). On the Graphic Novel. Çev., Bruce Campbell. Jackson: The University Press of Mississippi.
- Göçebe Düşünce Derneği (2022). “Solmaz Zelyüt- Ricoeur ile Hafıza ve Anlatı (Video).” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp0bThwQMBg. Erişim Tarihi: 23 Ocak 2024.
- Groensteen, Thierry (2007). The System of Comics. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
- Halbwachs, Maurice (2016). Hafızanın Toplumsal Çerçeveleri. Çev., Büşra Uçar. Ankara: Heretik Yayınları.
- Halbwachs, Maurice (2021). Kolektif Hafıza. Çev., Banu Barış. Ankara: Heretik Yayınları.
- Hatfield, Charles (2005). Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
- Hayden, Jennifer (2015). The Story of My Tits. Marietta: Top Shelf Productions.
- Hirsch, Marianne (2004). “Editor's Column: Collateral Damage.” PMLA, 119: 1209-1215.
- Hirsch, Marianne (2008). “The Generation of Postmemory.” Poetics Today, 29(1): 103-128.
- Karaman Cengiz, Cansu (2024). Bellekten Kurguya: Grafik Roman ve Animasyonda Öznelleşen Toplumsal Deneyimler (Tez No: 888347) [Sanatta Yeterlik Tezi, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi]. Ulusal Tez Merkezi.
- Kasthuri, Raghavi Ravi (2017). “The Story of My Tits, by Jennifer Hayden (Book review).” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 8(1): 112-113. doi: 10.1080/21504857.2016.1233900
- Kirtley, Susan (2014). “Considering the Alternative in Composition Pedagogy: Teaching Invitational Rhetoric with Lynda Barry's What It Is.” Women's Studies in Communication, 37(3): 339-359. doi:10.1080/07491409.2014.946166
- Kunka, Andrew J. (2018). Autobiographical Comics. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Landsberg, Alison (2004). Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Lauber, Vanessa (2020). “The Hospitable Aesthetics of Alison Bechdel.” The Comics of Alison Bechdel. From the Outside In. Janine Utell (der.) içinde. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 3-21.
- Leane, Jeanine (2019). “Another Story.” Research Methodologies for Auto/Biography Studies. Kate Douglas ve Ashley Barnwell (der.) içinde. 125-131. New York: Routledge.
- Lipsitz, George (2001). Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Machin, David ve Mayr, Andrew (2012). How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis. London: SAGE.
- McCloud, Scott (2018). Çizgi Romanı Anlamak. Çev., M. Cem Ülgen. İstanbul: Sırtlan Kitap.
- Nayar, Pramod K. (2021). Human Rights Graphic Novel. Drawing It Just Right. New York: Routledge.
- Negt, Oskar ve Kluge, Alexander (1993). Public Sphere and Experience. Toward an Analysis of the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public Pphere. London: Verso.
- Roe, Annabelle Honess (2013). Animated Documentary. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Traverso, Enzo (2019). Geçmişi Kullanma Kılavuzu. Tarih, Bellek, Politika. Çev., Işık Ergüden. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
- Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered (2011). “‘Round up the unusual suspects’: Banal commemoration and the role of the media.” On Media Memory. Collective Memory in a New Media Age. Neiger, M., Meyers, O. ve Zandberg, E. (der.) içinde. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 48-61
- Walden, Tillie (2017). Spinning. New York: First Second.
- Walker, Janet (2005). Trauma Cinema: Documenting Incest and the Holocaust. Oakland: University of California Press.
- Watson, Julia (2008). “Autographic Disclosures and Genealogies of Desire in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home.” Biography, 31(1): 27-58. doi: 10.1353/bio.0.0006
- Whitlock, Gillian (2006). “Autographics: The Seeing "I" of the Comics.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 52(4): 965-979.
- Zararsız Deli Dergisi. (1993, Temmuz 14). “Selçuk Erdem: Bre Ne Şerididir Bu?” Sayı 103.
Year 2025,
Volume: 28 Issue: 55, 74 - 102, 28.03.2025
Abstract
Hafızaya olan merak, moderniteden çok önceden beri vardır. Ancak, içinde bulunduğumuz dönemde belleğe dair ilginin ivmelenmesinde, modernitenin yarattığı unutkanlıkla, yapay belleğin imkânları arasındaki gerilimin özgün payı söz konusudur. Beraberinde, farklı bakış açıları içeren dönemler arasında, ortak aktarımları da görmek mümkündür. Bu kapsamda imge, duyumsama ve toplumsallaştırma bağlamlarıyla kurulan, Aristoteles’in anamnesis’inden, Landsberg’in protez hafızasına uzanan bellek patikası, çalışmanın da yerleştiği arka planı oluşturmaktadır. Devamındaki çizgi roman/grafik roman formu ise, bu çalışmayla patikanın sonundaki protez hafızaya, dizinsel olmayan, ikonografik yapısı ve gündeliği taşıyan otobiyografi biçimiyle, paradigma değiştirici olarak eklenmeye adaydır. Çünkü gündelik/sıradan olanla kurulan öznel anlatı, gerçekliğe zeval getirmek yerine, onu tanıklık/müzakere kapsamını genişlettiği protez bağlantılarını kurmaya açık hale getirir. Çalışma odağında yer alan otobiyografik grafik roman, gerçeği estetize etmeyen fakat gerçekçi biçiminden de sıyırarak aktaran anlatım biçimiyle, hafıza anlatılarının görsel metaforu olarak kendini sunar. Bu kapsamda, çok modlu söylem analizi ile incelenen 2000 sonrası üretilmiş beş otobiyografik grafik roman, doğrudan deneyimlenmeyen fakat aktarımlarla üstlenilebilen protez hafızanın imkânlarını, toplumsal cinsiyet merkezindeki kadın+ hikâyeleri örnekleriyle doğrulamaya çalışır.
References
- Ahmed, Maaheen ve Crucifix, Benoît (2018). “Coda: A User Guide to Comics Memory.” Comics Memory. Archives and Styles. Maaheen Ahmed ve Benoît Crucifix (der.) içinde. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 281-285.
- Aristoteles (2022). Anımsama ve Bağlantılı Anımsama Üzerine (Peri Mnemes kai Anamneseos). Çev. Lale Levin Basut ve Saffet Babür. İstanbul: BilgeSu Yayıncılık.
- Assman, Jan (2018). Kültürel Bellek. Eski Yüksek Kültürlerde Yazı, Hatırlama ve Politik Kimlik. Çev. Ayşe Tekin. İstanbul: Ayrıntı Yayınları.
- Barry, Lynda (2008). What it is. Quebec: Drawn and Quarterly.
- Bauer, Heike (2014). “Vital Lines Drawn From Books: Difficult Feelings in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home and Are You My Mother?” Journal of Lesbian Studies, 18(3): 266-281. doi: 10.1080/10894160.2014.896614
- Beaty, Bart (2011). “Selective Mutual Reinforcement in the Comics of Chester Brown, Joe Matt, and Seth.” Graphic Subjects: Critical Essays on Autobiography and Graphic Novels. M. Chaney (der.) içinde. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 247-259.
- Bechdel, Alison (2007). Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Brown, Kieron (2021). “Play and Playfulness in Lynda Barry’s What It Is”. Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 12(1): 127-148.
- Bui, Thi (2017). The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir. New York: Abrams Books.
- Chute, Hillary (2010). Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Chute, Hillary (2011). “Comics Form and Narrating Lives.” Profession, 1: 107-117.
- Cvetkovich, Ann (2008). “Drawing the Archive in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.” WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, 36(1&2): 111-128. doi: 10.1353/wsq.0.0037
- Davies, Caitlin (2021). "I want to define myself by what I am instead of what I am not": Examining Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary US Graphic Memoirs. [MRes American Studies, University of Nottingham].
- Domínguez Jeria, P. ve Muñoz, M. (2012). “Expressions of Subjectivity: Recent Historical Events Represented in Twenty-First-Century Chilean Autobiographical Comics.” Identity and History in Non-anglophone Comics. Harriet E.H. Earle ve Martin Lund (der.) içinde. New York: Routledge. 239-259.
- Duncan, Randy ve Smith, Matthew J. (2017). “How the Graphic Novel Works.” The Cambridge Companion to the Graphic Novel. Stephan E. Tabachnick (der.) içinde. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 30-58.
- El Refaie, Elisabeth (2012). Autobiographical Comics. Life Writing in Pictures. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
- García, Santiago (2015). On the Graphic Novel. Çev., Bruce Campbell. Jackson: The University Press of Mississippi.
- Göçebe Düşünce Derneği (2022). “Solmaz Zelyüt- Ricoeur ile Hafıza ve Anlatı (Video).” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp0bThwQMBg. Erişim Tarihi: 23 Ocak 2024.
- Groensteen, Thierry (2007). The System of Comics. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
- Halbwachs, Maurice (2016). Hafızanın Toplumsal Çerçeveleri. Çev., Büşra Uçar. Ankara: Heretik Yayınları.
- Halbwachs, Maurice (2021). Kolektif Hafıza. Çev., Banu Barış. Ankara: Heretik Yayınları.
- Hatfield, Charles (2005). Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.
- Hayden, Jennifer (2015). The Story of My Tits. Marietta: Top Shelf Productions.
- Hirsch, Marianne (2004). “Editor's Column: Collateral Damage.” PMLA, 119: 1209-1215.
- Hirsch, Marianne (2008). “The Generation of Postmemory.” Poetics Today, 29(1): 103-128.
- Karaman Cengiz, Cansu (2024). Bellekten Kurguya: Grafik Roman ve Animasyonda Öznelleşen Toplumsal Deneyimler (Tez No: 888347) [Sanatta Yeterlik Tezi, Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi]. Ulusal Tez Merkezi.
- Kasthuri, Raghavi Ravi (2017). “The Story of My Tits, by Jennifer Hayden (Book review).” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 8(1): 112-113. doi: 10.1080/21504857.2016.1233900
- Kirtley, Susan (2014). “Considering the Alternative in Composition Pedagogy: Teaching Invitational Rhetoric with Lynda Barry's What It Is.” Women's Studies in Communication, 37(3): 339-359. doi:10.1080/07491409.2014.946166
- Kunka, Andrew J. (2018). Autobiographical Comics. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Landsberg, Alison (2004). Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Lauber, Vanessa (2020). “The Hospitable Aesthetics of Alison Bechdel.” The Comics of Alison Bechdel. From the Outside In. Janine Utell (der.) içinde. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. 3-21.
- Leane, Jeanine (2019). “Another Story.” Research Methodologies for Auto/Biography Studies. Kate Douglas ve Ashley Barnwell (der.) içinde. 125-131. New York: Routledge.
- Lipsitz, George (2001). Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Machin, David ve Mayr, Andrew (2012). How to Do Critical Discourse Analysis. London: SAGE.
- McCloud, Scott (2018). Çizgi Romanı Anlamak. Çev., M. Cem Ülgen. İstanbul: Sırtlan Kitap.
- Nayar, Pramod K. (2021). Human Rights Graphic Novel. Drawing It Just Right. New York: Routledge.
- Negt, Oskar ve Kluge, Alexander (1993). Public Sphere and Experience. Toward an Analysis of the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public Pphere. London: Verso.
- Roe, Annabelle Honess (2013). Animated Documentary. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Traverso, Enzo (2019). Geçmişi Kullanma Kılavuzu. Tarih, Bellek, Politika. Çev., Işık Ergüden. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları.
- Vinitzky-Seroussi, Vered (2011). “‘Round up the unusual suspects’: Banal commemoration and the role of the media.” On Media Memory. Collective Memory in a New Media Age. Neiger, M., Meyers, O. ve Zandberg, E. (der.) içinde. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 48-61
- Walden, Tillie (2017). Spinning. New York: First Second.
- Walker, Janet (2005). Trauma Cinema: Documenting Incest and the Holocaust. Oakland: University of California Press.
- Watson, Julia (2008). “Autographic Disclosures and Genealogies of Desire in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home.” Biography, 31(1): 27-58. doi: 10.1353/bio.0.0006
- Whitlock, Gillian (2006). “Autographics: The Seeing "I" of the Comics.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 52(4): 965-979.
- Zararsız Deli Dergisi. (1993, Temmuz 14). “Selçuk Erdem: Bre Ne Şerididir Bu?” Sayı 103.
There are 45 citations in total.
Details
| Primary Language | Turkish |
|---|---|
| Subjects | Mass Media, Cultural and Creative Industries, Art Sociology |
| Journal Section | Research Article |
| Authors | |
| Publication Date | March 28, 2025 |
| Submission Date | November 24, 2024 |
| Acceptance Date | February 8, 2025 |
| Published in Issue | Year 2025 Volume: 28 Issue: 55 |
