Transgenerational Trauma in Comic Books

Abstract

Transgenerational trauma refers to the situation where children are traumatized‎by the experiences of their (grand)parents. It is a unique combination of‎individual, familial, and collective (cultural) traumatic processes. The intertwining‎of these processes poses a particular representational challenge, one‎that could be overcome by the comics medium. It was proposed by various‎authors that the visual language of comics is particularly useful for portraying‎traumatic experiences, such as the fragmentation of time, trauma’s belatedness‎and the haunting presence of the past. In this article I analyse two‎graphic novels, Heimat: A German Family Album by Nora Krug and Sunday’s‎Child by Serena Katt, both of which explore the transgenerational perpetrator‎trauma, and the roles the authors’ families had during the Second World War.‎I show how the authors use representational and aesthetic choices that help‎them convey the process of fact-searching as well as emotional engagement‎and imagination that is characteristic for transgenerational trauma.‎