Kabita Mondal1, Joydeep Banerjee2
1Assistant Professor of English, Sarojini Naidu College for women, Kolkata 700028 & Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, 713209. Orcid Id: 0000-0001-9109-9891. E-mail: kabita.mondal@sncwgs.ac.in,
2Associate Professor of English, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, 713209. Orcid Id: 0000-0003-3319-4991. E-mail: joydeep.banerjee@hu.nitdgp.ac.in,
Volume 13, Number 4, 2021 I Full-Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v13n4.32
Abstract:
The projection of the incongruities of contemporary times through the frame of satire is a powerful instrument in the genre of comics and graphic narratives and in Indian graphic literature as well. Mendiburo-Seguel and Heintz (2020) explain eight Comic Style Markers (CSM) in Latin-American cultures, and satire, a “darker style”, is one of them. The paper aims to conceptualise how Appupen’s wordless graphic narratives Moonward: Stories from Halahala (2009), Legends of Halahala (2013), Aspyrus: A Dream of Halahala (2014) and The Snake and the Lotus: A Halahala Adventure (2018) register black satire against society, politics, religion, industrialization, consumerism, advertisement and so on and how they prove to play the role of “corrective humour” (Ruch and Heintz, 2016). This paper attempts to explore how the “author-artist’s” (Aldama, 2010) fantastical and dystopic graphic narratives, excoriate social and political issues to create a unique aesthetic of thoughtful critical writing in graphic mode, thereby collectively contributing to the interdisciplinary studies of fantasy and dystopia and helping to proliferate the genre of Indian Comics and graphic narratives as well. Moreover, as “satire had a moral goodness that was lacking in sarcasm and cynicism” (Ruch, Heintz, Platt, Wagner, and Proyer, 2018), this essay argues what kind of empathic feeling, perspective sharing and cognitive overlap Appupen cultivates in these four narratives and develops their moral, aesthetic and humane tenacity. The article discusses Appupen’s satire as a vehicle by which he prudently moulds empathy with the reader to convey the intrinsic values of the texts.
Keywords: silent, dystopic, graphic, fantasy, society, empathy, altruism.