Magical realism as a strategy to embody trauma in comics for young readers
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Information, School of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Navascués, Logaine
issued: 2023-12-14T23:07:17Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Both magical realist fiction and the graphic novel as a form have been widely recognized as counternarratives with the power to destabilize the dominant literary forms¬ of the Western world by their ability to showcase underrepresented voices and stories from the margins. Their relationship to trauma has also been studied in depth, as they allow their creators to re-present the unrepresentable nature of historic, collective or personal traumatic events. However, the interaction between comics and magical realism has not yet garnered much academic attention, let alone in relation to literature for young readers. With this thesis, I aim to bridge this gap by analyzing how magical realist fiction and the graphic novel work together to highlight the traumatic experiences of marginal voices in children’s literature. In my academic paper, I first identify the key elements present in magical realist literature following Wendy B. Faris’s studies, and the underlying principles of comics creation based on Scott McCloud’s seminal work on the form, and explore their relationship to trauma. I then discuss other visions and versions of trauma of growing up, including the effects of bullying, racial discrimination, immigration and intergenerational trauma. These findings, along with Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s visual grammar, serve as a framework for my close reading of Kiku Hughes’ young adult graphic novel Displacement through a magical realist lens. Using this same framework, I then reflect on my creative process writing the middle grade graphic novel Nuna and the Nose. The story combines Nuna’s first-person point of view and a first-nose perspective to showcase Nuna’s fragmented sense of identity. This magical realist device enables me to address the complexity of Nuna’s traumatic experience as an immigrant dealing with bullying, self-image issues and anxiety, and her disconnect from her own roots. This hybrid thesis highlights the power of combining the multimodal fo…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/86962
note: MAGICAL REALISM AS A STRATEGY TO EMBODY TRAUMA IN COMICS FOR YOUNG READERS by Logaine Navascués Honours B.A., Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas, 2000 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Children’s Literature) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2023 © Logaine Navascués, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled: Magical Realism as a Strategy to Embody Trauma in Comics for Young Readers submitted by Logaine Navascués in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Children’s Literature Examining Committee: Theresa Rogers, Professor, Language and Literacy Education, UBC Co-supervisor Kathryn Shoemaker, Professor, Language and Literacy Education, UBC Co-supervisor Sarah Leavitt, Professor, School of Creative Writing, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Both magical realist fiction and the graphic novel as a form have been widely recognized as counternarratives with the power to destabilize the dominant literary forms of the Western world by their ability to showcase underrepresented voices and stories from the margins. Their relationship to trauma has also been studied in depth, as they allow their creators to re-present the unrepresentable nature of historic, collective or personal traumatic events. However, the interaction between comics and magical realism has not yet garnered much academic attention, let alone in relation to literature for young readers. With this thesis, I aim to bridge this gap by analyzing how magical realist fiction and the graphic novel work together to highlight the traumatic experiences of marginal voices in children’s literature. In my academic paper, I first identify the key elements present in magical realist literature following Wendy B. Fa…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2024-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0438288
language: eng
degree discipline: Children's Literature
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Rogers, Theresa
contributor: Shoemaker, Kathryn E.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/86962