Documentary comics in modern scientific discourse and Ukrainian comics space

Abstract

The characteristics of documentary comics in modern multidisciplinary scientific space is presented, the methods of nonlinear historiography (narrative, oral history, commemoration) and post-documentalism are presented. The scientific discourse focuses on the types of interpretation of reality in comics, the hybridity of genre and style features, the types and forms of empathic involvement of the reader, the compositional specifics of graphic journalism. Scientists’ particular attention is focused on the forms of representation of the “lost history and the history of the lost” (N. Chute), on the means of expanding the space of human memory and historical narrative. The modern direction of scientific research, where documentary comics act as a kind of memory archiver in the form of a visual narrative (N. Mickwitz), as an effective means of understanding and experiencing the historical trauma, brings comics’ studies into the space of global commemorative and historical perspective research. In its own working definition of the genre, narrative, temporal deferment, and veracity of subjective evaluation are actualized. Using the formation example of the Ukrainian comic-space, the principles of accelerated and almost simultaneous deployment of the heroic and documentary narratives are characterized, the features of documentalism in the comic “Will”, the graphic novel “Hole” by S. Zakharov are analyzed. Documentary storytelling in the format of comic journalism is investigated on the basis of the collection “Shadows of forgotten ancestors. Graphic stories”, multiplatform (dos-a-dos format book, comic book, audio performance on YuoTube) hybrid presentation of thematic narrative is illustrated within the “Underground Sky” publication.