Abstract

<p>[Introduction]: "What does it mean to be nameless? This is the question that lingers throughout Nina Bunjevac’s graphic narrative Bezimena(2019). To be without a name is, in large part, to exist without identity, agency, or power. The process of naming is a political one, bound by power dynamics and structures. The paratext of Bezimena plays a vital role in this comic. In the Author’s Afterword, Bunjevac dedicates the graphic narrative “to all forgotten and nameless victims of sexual violence” (Bunjevac 2019). This positions the graphic narrative as one directly confronting the violence of sexual trauma and a traumatic past. In fact, one of the nameless victims at the center of the story is Bunjevac herself."</p>

Highlights

  • Bezimena (Serbian): Nameless What does it mean to be nameless? This is the question that lingers throughout NinaBunjevac’s graphic narrative Bezimena (2019)

  • Bunjevac only uses black and white, which further contributes to this womblike feel by engulfing the reader into a certain darkness

  • By framing the sequence of illustrations depicting the young girl being handed off to the man with these two eyes gazing out a peephole, Bunjevac is alluding to the troubling ways in which sexual assault is often “seen” but ignored and silenced

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Summary

Introduction

Bezimena (Serbian): Nameless What does it mean to be nameless? This is the question that lingers throughout Nina. Bunjevac only uses black and white, which further contributes to this womblike feel by engulfing the reader into a certain darkness Through these visual cues, when readers reach the page featuring Benny hidden in the leaves and Benny’s view of the women from the leaves, they are engaging in a form of doublevoyeurism and double-witnessing. By framing the sequence of illustrations depicting the young girl being handed off to the man with these two eyes gazing out a peephole, Bunjevac is alluding to the troubling ways in which sexual assault is often “seen” but ignored and silenced. The eyes are both seeing the sexual assault taking place, as well as looking directly at the reader. The drops of blood, the silence, and the void, all signal a violent and traumatic experience, one that words may not be able to explain

Conclusion
Works Cited

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