Mourning and loss in the work of Pauline Martin and Dominique Goblet

Abstract

This article discusses the portrayal of loss and bereavement in the work of two female comics artists. It focuses first on three short books by the French artist Pauline Martin, La Boite (2000), La Meilleure du monde (2001), and Ce que je sais de ma maman (2007), and then analyses Faire semblant c’est mentir (2008) by the Belgian artist Dominique Goblet. It considers how these artists deploy the resources of the medium to give expression to states of grief and loss by which their textual selves are submerged, and to the stages of mourning that allow them to attain some resolution, a process that includes the production of the books themselves. It notes that the work of both artists alludes, in indirect ways, to ambivalent feelings toward the mother.