Beyond the written word: Investigating Post-Colonial identity through ballooned words and drawn texts in Sarnath Banerjee’s graphic novels

Abstract

This study delves into the unique narrative style of graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee, focusing on his depiction of post-colonial identity in a modern, multilingual Indian context. It examines how Banerjee utilizes both phonetic elements and text to express this theme. Contrary to the perception of comics as trivial, this paper argues that they effectively blend visual and verbal elements, creating multimodal texts where various semiotic elements contribute significantly to meaning-making. Banerjee’s work, characterized as rhizomatic, employs a hybrid symbolic system to navigate the complex postmodern and postcolonial landscape of India. He does so through the use of symbolic, emblematic, and indexical features, which are integral in articulating these societal tensions.