Visualising “unhomeliness” and tracing trauma in Malik Sajad’s graphic memoir Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir

ABSTRACT

The paper deals with the sudden experience of an unfamiliar feeling due to the blurring of the boundaries between the private and the public space, resulting in what Bhabha calls ‘unhomely.’ It has been further argued that this sudden emergence of unfamiliar experiences acts as a traumatic event, represented through graphic narration in Malik Sajad’s Munnu: A Boy from Kashmir. The sense of ‘unhomeliness’ caused due to various factors like constant surveillance is responsible for the traumatic feeling in Munnu. The paper also explores the idea of the panopticon, which engenders the blurring of the boundaries between the home and the world. The blurred boundaries make our private space strange and unfamiliar, which is supposed to be an intimate place without any invasion by the external world. Therefore, the present study explores the notion of ‘unhomely’ and the trauma caused by it, as represented in the graphic narration of the events through dreams and nightmares.

KEYWORDS:

• Unhomely
• trauma
• graphic novels
• panopticon
• nightmare

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.