Panels of the Self: Self-Referentiality, Memory and Speaking Out on Traumatic Abuse in Sole Otero’s Poncho Fue (2017)
摘要
Montenegro examines the graphic novel Poncho fue (2017) by Argentine female comics artist Sole Otero. This fictionalised autobiographical graphic narrative allows Montenegro to explore the implications of self-referentiality in narrating and illustrating personal experiences of domestic abuse. This chapter considers female subjectivity through the enunciative graphic voice and the portrayal of the autobiographical self. Remembering, recounting and drawing personal experiences serve to examine themes of memory, trauma and self-depiction, termed ‘self-drawgraphies’. Poncho fue is a personal story and yet Montenegro argues that it holds universal value in writing and speaking out on abuse and in graphically portraying psychological violence against women. By analysing Otero's graphic novel, this chapter aims to contribute to the broader discourse on female subjectivity and abuse in graphic narratives by women.