Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the precarious porosity of the human body. Biological vulnerability and the fear of contagion in recent times has prompted the exercise of caution by enforcing distinct demarcating boundaries between the environment, the self, and the other. Thus, the faculty of touch is restricted despite its importance in functional, developmental, haptic, intimate, non-verbal, therapeutic, cultural, and social dimensions. Avenues of direct contact have been barred, with digital and mediated touch dominating various spheres. The lived experience of a population negotiating with the loss of tactile contact finds expression within the subjective narratives of the viral subject detailed insightfully through the medium of comics. Taking instances from graphic medicine, this paper aims to analyse the parameters of touch and tactility during the COVID-19 pandemic by close reading comic panels from various sources.

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