Colonial hauntings in Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons

Abstract

Abstract This article traces two interrelated affective economies present in Lynda Barry’s One Hundred Demons. First, I begin with a discussion of colonial hauntings demonstrated by the numerous demons in Barry’s text whose title also bears this word. The demons of Barry’s text are ghostly presences that are the aftereffects of colonial trauma. Second, I examine the ways in which Barry employs what I call are ‘sticky visual rhythms’ that produce haptic knowledge that reverberates colonial hauntings of racism, sexism and empire. These affective rhythms not only echo the haunting effects of colonization, empire and intimacies, but also offer new ways of countering patriarchal and imperial desires. The ‘sticky visual rhythms’ of One Hundred Demons allow us to think through issues of self-loathing, anger and depression that disproportionately affect those who have been subjected to traumas of colonialism and other structural inequalities.