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ABSTRACT
This paper argues that the Indian graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee’s works evidence a well-imagined ‘ideal reader’. We contend that the process of ascertaining Banerjee’s ideal reader will allow us to appreciate his craft better while examining his creative politics. The paper attempts to delineate such a reader mainly based on substantiation from the texts. It uses supporting material from Banerjee’s interviews and readers’ responses from discussion platforms and reviews. It examines the choices made by Banerjee in the course of the creation of his work in terms of medium and format, language, complexity of form, subject matter, and age to demarcate his readership. It asserts that Banerjee attempts to continually evolve his works, demanding more from himself and his readers, evolving them in the process.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. We use the term graphic novel for Banerjee’s first, second and fourth works because they are a piece of long-form fiction, novelistic in form and scope. We use the term graphic narrative for his third work The Harappa Files as it is a ‘series of graphic commentaries’. For more on the distinction between ‘graphic novel’ and ‘graphic narrative’ refer to Hillary Chute’s (Citation2008) essay ‘Comics as Literature’.
2. Orijit Sen’s A River of Stories based on the Narmada Bachao Andolan was published in 1994 with the help of a grant from an Indian NGO, Kalpavriksh. The book was not a commercial venture and its circulation was limited. In that regard, Sarnath Banerjee’s Corridor, a commercial venture (published by Penguin) and a considerably successful one at that, can be said to have initiated the wave of graphic novel publication in India.
3. Varughese’s exposition here builds on her earlier article published in Citation2016 which is limited to studying The Harappa Files along similar lines.
4. Davies here expands upon his earlier article “Urban Comix: Subcultures, Infrastructures and “The Right to the city” in Delhi” published in Citation2018 where he uses only Corridor and BOWC to present similar arguments.
5. From amazon.com and goodreads.com.
6. New Criticism considers it a fallacy while Reader Response asserts it cannot be fully recovered and therefore is irrelevant.
7. McLuhan says: ‘[T]he modern comics strip and comic book provide very little data about any particular moment in time, or aspect in space, of an object. The viewer, or reader, is compelled to participate in completing and interpreting the few hints provided by the bounding lines’
8. According to McGrath (Citation2004) ‘Graphic novels, or the good ones anyway, are virtually unskimmable. And until you get the hang of their particular rhythm and way of storytelling, they may require more, not less, concentration than traditional books’
9. Pramod Nayar, The Indian Graphic Novel, Page 7.
10. For more on the evolution of the Indian graphic novel as a move away from the Amar Chitra Katha comic series popular in India, refer to Varughese’s Visuality and Identity in the Post-Millennial Indian Graphic Novel.
12. Sarnath Banerjee states: ‘There was no commercially available graphic novel available in India at that time. She [V.K.Karthika, editor at HarperCollins] must have spent hours trying to convince marketing. Today, most publishers want to do graphic novels.’ https://www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/2016/dec/03/graphic-novels-radically-rooted-in-indian-market−1,544,633html Accessed on 29 September 2020
15. Amar Chitra Katha literally meaning ‘Immortal Picture Stories’ are Indian comics based on important figures from Indian mythology and history, meant to enlighten Indian children about their cultural heritage.
16. Amitabh Kumar states that versions of Amar Chitra Katha were available in as many as 38 languages https://paocollective.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/raj-comics-a-brief-overview/ Accessed on 5 February 2021.
17. In an interview with Rohini Kejriwal, Banerjee says, ‘Both Amruta and I can’t be called mainstream because you need a certain mindset to want to become mainstream, which neither of us want. Some people want to be known as a bestseller, which isn’t a big thing for a lot of us. That’s not the direction we want to go to. Amish is doing his job, Chetan is doing his job. They have an understanding of the world and can fill up stadiums with readers. They are catering to a certain group of people, while we are not’ (Citation2021, n.p.).
18. Recontextualization involves taking something from its original context and placing it in another thereby reframing it. Linell (Citation1998) describes recontextualization as ‘the dynamic transfer-and-transformation of something from one discourse/text-in-context … to another’ (144–145).
22. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/568612.Corridor?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=WtVD2YPVBg&rank=1 Accessed on 11 February 2021
25. ‘Doab Dil is by no means a graphic novel, rather it’s a more inventive juxtaposition of text and image that draws on a formidable literary and artistic heritage’ says Banerjee in an interview with Rihan Najib (Najib Citation2019, n.p.). Something along similar lines is also mentioned in another interview available at https://therewillbetime.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/SARNATH-INTERVIEW_therewillbeime_WEEK-19.pdf.
29. The other two major strands are the super-hero themed graphic novels and the mythology themed ones.
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