(Cont'd)
It is also valid to investigate the various diffused instances of ‘circular visuality’ and ‘literal coevalness’ in the manner of framing as indicated by Shay (2014). Though Abed and Ashraf take on the duty of navigating Sacco through the physical and memorial mazes of massacre victims, they are themselves personally tied to the similar non-descript fate of misfortune. There exists a certain circularity of fate in the contiguous placement of close-up frames: of Ashraf’s father’s lamentation on the loss of personal property, when he evokes – “A man without a home is a man without dignity” (Sacco, 2009, pp.251); and later Ashraf in a moment of introspection, asks – "Some people are happy they lost their homes. They lost a bad home and they got a replacement. But what about me?” (ibid, pp.330) Even the transference of the plight of violent atrocities between generations resonate in the full-page depictions of the horrifying assault by thick sticks, from arbitrariness and incoherence of state of affairs of 1956, (ibid, pp. 238) and the constant fear of being ravaged by the AFV and patrolling settlement guards of 2002-’03 (ibid, pp.187). Moshe Dayan’s retaliatory attacks on main street in Gaza city in April 1956 evoking anger from Jemal Abdel Nasser (ibid, pp.72) finds a tautological twin in Israeli attack on Jabalia refugee camp when suicide bombers killed Israelis in Haifa (ibid, pp.291). Violence is embedded as postmemory transferred in between kin, with the high contrast frontal portraitures of the ‘fedayeen’ and the ‘muratad’ aligned vertically in the manner of resistance across decades (ibid, pp.50). Even in the same generation, the ‘fedayeen’ directs spate of bile at Egyptian Nasser contained in the same frame (ibid, pp.73). These instances of circular visuality lend a notion of time as simultaneous and continuous, and violence being ever perpetrated.
The internal focalization of the decades-old events eroded by ‘inevitable blurring of memory’ ultimately gets contained in the short snatches by a similar scene of transference from present back to the past (ibid, pp.385-389). The optically-opaque black non-spaces or gutter delineate the fixed-sized frames into a singular definitive retelling, bereft of psychodrama, multifarious testimonies, or opacities of memory, where they sink into the oblivion of black, merely as footnotes, ‘dropped to the bottom of history's pages’ lest ‘they trip up the greater narrative.’
Works cited:
1. Kozol, Wendy. “Complicities of witnessing in Joe Sacco’s Palestine.” In Theoretical Perspectives on Human Rights and Literature, edited by Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg, Alexandra Schultheis Moore, 165-179. 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2012.
2. Scherr, Rebecca. “Framing human rights: Comics form and the politics of recognition in Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza”, Textual Practice, 29:1 (2015), 111-131.
3. Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador, 2004.
4. Cohn, Neil. The visual language of comics: Introduction to the structure and cognition of sequential images. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2013.
5. Sacco, Joe. Footnotes in Gaza. New York: Henry Holt & Company. 2009.
6. Sacco, Joe. Palestine: The Special Edition. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. 2001.
7. Shay, Maureen. “Framing refugee time: perpetuated regression in Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50:2 (2014), 202-215.
8. Davies, Dominic. “Joe Sacco: Representing Palestine.” oxonianreview.org December 23, 2013. http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/joe-sacco-representing-palestine/
9. Haley, Jae. “Beyond the Boundaries of Maps: Methods of Dissensus in Joe Sacco's ‘Footnotes in Gaza’." Studies in Popular Culture, 37:1 (2014), 57-73.
10. Hodapp, James. “The postcolonial Joe Sacco.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 6:4 (2015), 319-330.
11. Vanderbeke, Dirk. “In the Art of the Beholder: Comics as Political Journalism.” In Comics as a Nexus of Cultures: Essays on the Interplay of Media, Disciplines and International Perspectives, edited by Mark Berninger, Jochen Ecke and Gideon Haberkorn, 70-81. 1st Ed. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2010.
12. Groensteen, Thierry. The System of Comics. Translated by B. Beaty and N. Nguyen. Starkville, MS: University of Mississippi Press. 2007.
13. Berlatsky, Noah. “Comics Journalism... Why?” October 22, 2012. http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2012/10/comics-journalism-why/
14. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
15. Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? New York: Verso, 2009.
16. Rosenblatt, Adam; Lunsford, Andrea A. “Critique, Caricature and Compulsion in Joe Sacco’s Comics Journalism.” In The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts, edited by Paul Williams and James Lyons, 68-87. 1st Ed. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010.
17. Hirsch, Marianne. "Editor's Column: Collateral Damage." PMLA, 119:5 (2004), 1209–1215.
18. Williams, Kristian. “The Case for Comics Journalism.” Columbia Journalism Review March/April 2005. http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/2/ideas-essay-williams.asp. Republished at http://producer.csi.edu/cdraney/archive-courses/spring07/engl102/e-texts/comics-journalism.htm
19. Cooke, Rachel. “Eyeless in Gaza” November 22, 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/22/joe-sacco-interview-rachel-cooke
It is also valid to investigate the various diffused instances of ‘circular visuality’ and ‘literal coevalness’ in the manner of framing as indicated by Shay (2014). Though Abed and Ashraf take on the duty of navigating Sacco through the physical and memorial mazes of massacre victims, they are themselves personally tied to the similar non-descript fate of misfortune. There exists a certain circularity of fate in the contiguous placement of close-up frames: of Ashraf’s father’s lamentation on the loss of personal property, when he evokes – “A man without a home is a man without dignity” (Sacco, 2009, pp.251); and later Ashraf in a moment of introspection, asks – "Some people are happy they lost their homes. They lost a bad home and they got a replacement. But what about me?” (ibid, pp.330) Even the transference of the plight of violent atrocities between generations resonate in the full-page depictions of the horrifying assault by thick sticks, from arbitrariness and incoherence of state of affairs of 1956, (ibid, pp. 238) and the constant fear of being ravaged by the AFV and patrolling settlement guards of 2002-’03 (ibid, pp.187). Moshe Dayan’s retaliatory attacks on main street in Gaza city in April 1956 evoking anger from Jemal Abdel Nasser (ibid, pp.72) finds a tautological twin in Israeli attack on Jabalia refugee camp when suicide bombers killed Israelis in Haifa (ibid, pp.291). Violence is embedded as postmemory transferred in between kin, with the high contrast frontal portraitures of the ‘fedayeen’ and the ‘muratad’ aligned vertically in the manner of resistance across decades (ibid, pp.50). Even in the same generation, the ‘fedayeen’ directs spate of bile at Egyptian Nasser contained in the same frame (ibid, pp.73). These instances of circular visuality lend a notion of time as simultaneous and continuous, and violence being ever perpetrated.
The internal focalization of the decades-old events eroded by ‘inevitable blurring of memory’ ultimately gets contained in the short snatches by a similar scene of transference from present back to the past (ibid, pp.385-389). The optically-opaque black non-spaces or gutter delineate the fixed-sized frames into a singular definitive retelling, bereft of psychodrama, multifarious testimonies, or opacities of memory, where they sink into the oblivion of black, merely as footnotes, ‘dropped to the bottom of history's pages’ lest ‘they trip up the greater narrative.’
Works cited:
1. Kozol, Wendy. “Complicities of witnessing in Joe Sacco’s Palestine.” In Theoretical Perspectives on Human Rights and Literature, edited by Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg, Alexandra Schultheis Moore, 165-179. 1st ed. New York: Routledge, 2012.
2. Scherr, Rebecca. “Framing human rights: Comics form and the politics of recognition in Joe Sacco's Footnotes in Gaza”, Textual Practice, 29:1 (2015), 111-131.
3. Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador, 2004.
4. Cohn, Neil. The visual language of comics: Introduction to the structure and cognition of sequential images. London: Bloomsbury Academic. 2013.
5. Sacco, Joe. Footnotes in Gaza. New York: Henry Holt & Company. 2009.
6. Sacco, Joe. Palestine: The Special Edition. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics Books. 2001.
7. Shay, Maureen. “Framing refugee time: perpetuated regression in Joe Sacco’s Footnotes in Gaza.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 50:2 (2014), 202-215.
8. Davies, Dominic. “Joe Sacco: Representing Palestine.” oxonianreview.org December 23, 2013. http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/joe-sacco-representing-palestine/
9. Haley, Jae. “Beyond the Boundaries of Maps: Methods of Dissensus in Joe Sacco's ‘Footnotes in Gaza’." Studies in Popular Culture, 37:1 (2014), 57-73.
10. Hodapp, James. “The postcolonial Joe Sacco.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 6:4 (2015), 319-330.
11. Vanderbeke, Dirk. “In the Art of the Beholder: Comics as Political Journalism.” In Comics as a Nexus of Cultures: Essays on the Interplay of Media, Disciplines and International Perspectives, edited by Mark Berninger, Jochen Ecke and Gideon Haberkorn, 70-81. 1st Ed. North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2010.
12. Groensteen, Thierry. The System of Comics. Translated by B. Beaty and N. Nguyen. Starkville, MS: University of Mississippi Press. 2007.
13. Berlatsky, Noah. “Comics Journalism... Why?” October 22, 2012. http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2012/10/comics-journalism-why/
14. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.
15. Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? New York: Verso, 2009.
16. Rosenblatt, Adam; Lunsford, Andrea A. “Critique, Caricature and Compulsion in Joe Sacco’s Comics Journalism.” In The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts, edited by Paul Williams and James Lyons, 68-87. 1st Ed. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2010.
17. Hirsch, Marianne. "Editor's Column: Collateral Damage." PMLA, 119:5 (2004), 1209–1215.
18. Williams, Kristian. “The Case for Comics Journalism.” Columbia Journalism Review March/April 2005. http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/2/ideas-essay-williams.asp. Republished at http://producer.csi.edu/cdraney/archive-courses/spring07/engl102/e-texts/comics-journalism.htm
19. Cooke, Rachel. “Eyeless in Gaza” November 22, 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/nov/22/joe-sacco-interview-rachel-cooke
No comments:
Post a Comment