Comics, memory and migration: Through the mirror maze of Soloup’s Aivali

Abstract

This article turns towards the legacy of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22) in contemporary Greek culture. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of postmemory and intergenerational transmission of trauma, it examines the Greek graphic novel Aivali by Soloup (2014, translated into English in 2019) in order to discuss aesthetics and practices set in motion by the memory of Asia Minor, when the relay of remembrance reaches the third generation. The article demonstrates how the fragments of memories that the grandchildren of Asia Minor refugees inherited from their ancestors find their way into comics panels, through which those memories are reassembled into a public visual archive. At the same time, the graphic novel also performs a reconstitution of the Greek literary canon, when the works of Greek and Turkish writers are called upon to fill in the gaps in the family story. Ultimately, it is argued that affective connections fostered through reading Aivali ensure that memory can travel across time and lead to new encounters, bringing back reminiscences of Asia Minor afresh to communities’ collective imagination.