New Narratives of Trauma in Graphic Novels: Framing Sara Baartman in Vénus Noire

Abstract

The past three decades saw the emergence of a new trend of graphic novels that depict individual and collective trauma and violence. This article briefly explores the historical and cultural conditions that favored the appearance of trauma narratives in the graphic novel. It also studies one of the many re-figurations of Sara Baartman in the graphic novel, Vénus Noire (2010) by Renaud Pennelle and Abdellatif Kechiche and explores how the graphic novel can contribute to an understanding of black sexuality and scientific portrayal of the body of indigenous people (Baartman in our case) by studying the social and cultural conditions of people of color in Europe and colonies in the eighteenth century.

Keywords:

• Graphic Novel
• Trauma
• Violence
• Vénus Noire
• Scientific Observation

Notes

1 Stephen Jay Gould, “The Hottentot Venus,” Natural History, vol. 91, no. 10, 1982 [1985], pp. 20–27. Reprinted with additional material in 1985 in The Flamingo’s Smile: Reflections in Natural History, pp. 291–305.

2 Portrait d’une femme noire also known as Portrait d’une négresse by Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Vénus africaine (1851) by C-H-J. Cordier, Ourika (1793) by Sophie de Tott.

3 See Andrew P. Lyons, “The Two Lives of Sara Baartman: Gender, ‘Race,’ Politics and the Historiography of Mis/Representation,” Anthropologica, vol. 60, no.1, 2018, [pp. 337–346], p. 333.

4 Some of these travelers include Peter Kolb, Anders Sparrman and Sir John Barrow.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Haniyeh Barahouie Pasandi

Haniyeh Barahouie Pasandi is Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies. Her research interests include comics and graphic novels, transcultural studies, women studies, visual culture of the Middle East and North Africa and trasmedial studies. Her articles appeared journals such as Alternative Francophone and Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literatures. Her recent publication “Entre bande dessinée et jeu vidéo: Le Secret de la Licorne d’Hergé,” studies the adaptation of Le Secret de la Licorne in comics, film, and video game.