The use of analepsis in representations of traumatic experience is not a new
phenomenon in traumatic art in general or comics in particular. However, in GB
Tran’s family narrative of the Vietnam War, Vietnamerica
(2011), this trope is used in a
particular fashion. While discussing his father’s imprisonment at the
hands of the Vietnamese Government, Tran uses heavy black art before
‘flashing back’ into his father’s past, all of which is drawn
in a style highly reminiscent of Ligne Claire.
The high contrast of Tran’s two artistic styles is especially interesting
when we consider that he is trying to recreate a traumatic experience told in
analepsis and also when we remember the French occupation of Vietnam and,
invariably, the influence of French art on Tran’s father. Why does Tran
use this iconic style for the flashback? How does this shift in style affect the
narrative? How does it assist in the representation of the traumatic experience
within the text?
ComicsVietnam WarTraumaFreudGB Tran
GB Tran’s family graphic narrative Vietnamerica (2011) recounts the multi-generational story of his
family history, starting with his grandparents’ (specifically grandmothers’)
experience of the French colonial presence and First Indochina War. The text follows
three levels of narration: the historical background of his family, the post-war
experience of the two younger generations and Tran’s 2006 visit to Vietnam for the
funeral of Thi Mot, his maternal grandmother. The first narrative layer –the
historical background– does not work chronologically and jumps from the 1950s to
Tran’s childhood in the 1980s, back to the 1970s and so on; the text relies
heavily on analepsis. Analepsis is defined as “evocation after the fact of an
event that took place earlier in the point of the story” (Genette 1972: 40) – put simply, it is a flashback.
Tran’s mother, Dzung, acts as the narrator for a single scene-setting panel before
the narrative shifts back. Though this framing happens throughout the text there is one
section which utilises a specific (and iconic) comics style that does not feature in any
other part of the text. Tran uses ligne claire to illustrate the
flashback-within-a-flashback narrative of his father’s imprisonment by the Army of
the Republic of Vietnam, henceforth referred to as the ARVN (2011: 68–91). The term “ligne
claire” was coined by Dutch cartoonist Joost Swarte (originally
rendered Klare Lijn) and his 1977 exhibition in Rotterdam (Miller 2007: 18). However, the style is synonymous
with the Franco-Belgian bandes-dessinée tradition and more
specifically Belgian comics artist Hergé. This style “privileges smooth,
continuous linework, simplified contours and bright, solid colours, while avoiding
frayed lines, exploded forms and expressionistic rendering” (Hatfield 2005: 60). Ligne claire has not been
widely used in the American comics tradition, although some artists can be said to
employ it and to good effect, most notably Chris Ware in Jimmy
Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth (2000). Before performing
a close analysis of this section of the text, I wish to prove an outline of trauma
theory and how issues of traumatic personal chronology are particularly pertinent to
this comic.
For many – notably Freud and Breuer (1896),
Herman (1992) and Caruth (1996) – it is one of the most noticeable symptoms of a
traumatic rupture that the individual loses their grip on time; their sense of personal
chronology is severely disrupted. For Freud, writing in Moses and
Monotheism (2011) [1939], this
disjunction in personal timekeeping can occur at the very first instance of the
traumatic rupture. It is at this moment that the difficult relationship between time and
trauma begins for, as Freud writes, the complete psychical effects of the traumatic
rupture do not necessarily happen immediately – there is a delay. Freud refers to
this as deferred action. Thus the amount of time that may pass before the trauma’s
full effect is felt can vary greatly between individuals. However, it remains the case
that trauma is, as Cathy Caruth contends, a “break in the mind’s experience
of time” (Caruth 1996: 61).
The mind’s protective shield is not engaged in time; the threat to the self is
recognised one moment too late. If trauma exists separately from comprehension, then it
has never been known fully or, indeed, understood and has therefore not existed in time.
It is this lack of temporal understanding and direct experience that causes the
traumatic rupture and leads to the development of traumatic symptoms. I reiterate my
initial point: time – and the fracturing thereof – has an effect on all
other symptoms of the traumatic rupture; it is this rupturing of time that we see in the
representation of Tri’s story in Vietnamerica.
In this section, the first flashback (to Tri’s imprisonment) uses dark coloration
and black gutters, combined with crosshatching, crowded bubbles and onomatopoeia, to
create an atmosphere of uncertainty. However, the darkness and confusion of the images
contrast sharply with the uniformity of the panelling, beginning with equally sized and
spaced bandeau panels (2011: 69) (Figure 1).
Uniformity of panels generally suggests a steady and mechanical passage of time. This may
be the case – Tri cannot know how much time has passed – but this stability
of timeframe serves to destabilise the narrative as a whole; it is disconcerting because
it jars uncomfortably with the content of the images. The relative size of each instance
of onomatopoeia to the rest of the image within each panel suggests two things. First,
that the sound represented is extremely loud and second, that the room in which the
activity is taking place is small and cramped. As is common in the comics form, the
writing style corresponds to the noise itself; the artist writes the sounds as he wants
them to be read in order to evoke certain emotions and sensations within the reader.
This brings the textual style into direct involvement with the meaning of the words,
furthering the onomatopoeic effect.
The second flashback occurs while Tri is in his cell and takes him back into his early
life, hence ‘flashback within a flashback’ (I will refer to this as the
‘flash-flashback’). This occurs three times and it is here that the
ligne claire comes into play. A trigger in the first flashback
takes Tri into the second flashback. The ARVN guards refer to him by his full name, Tran
Huu Tri, which moves the narration back to Tri’s first day at school and the
occasion of his meeting his best friend, Do (2011:
71) (Figure 2).
Each flash-flashback starts on the right-hand side of the page, creating a stark contrast
between the two pages. The cleanness and rich, bold colour of ligne
claire seems childlike compared to the roughness of the preceding images.
By starting the flash-flashback on the right-hand side, rather than the left, which
would require a page-turn, the shift in time is very fast. It happens in the time it
takes the reader’s eye to move up the page. Were it presented on the left-hand
page, the shift in time would take longer – the time it took to turn the page. Not
only would this remove the bold contrast between pages, it would also give the reader
more time to pause before moving further back, removing the shock of the sudden time
shift and allowing for anticipation of what was about to happen, replacing shock with
anticipatory fear (Freud and Breuer 2000: 57).
Further to this, ligne claire uses emanata1, especially in the case of someone being punched, to demonstrate the
individual’s physical state. This, coupled with a heavy use of onomatopoeia, is
typical of the form.
Ligne Claire (capitalised) is more than just an artistic style. It
carries with it tremendous iconic weight, thanks to its associations with Hergé and
Les Aventures de Tintin. In choosing to use this style, Tran will
be aware of these associations. Earlier in the text, while discussing his father’s
childhood in a small Vietnamese town, a panel shows him being presented with a copy of
Le Lotus Bleu (1936), the 5th book of the Tintin series
(2011: 38). This panel acts as a brief hint of
what is to come, as well as testifying to the influence of Hergé on both
Tran’s development as a comics artist and Tri’s life as an artist. In a
later panel, Tran’s mother fumes over his father’s inability to throw
anything out and, holding two Tintin books, she says ‘He’s a grown man! When
does he ever read comics?’ (2011: 142). The
inclusion of Hergé and the watercolourist style of Tran’s artwork both refer
to the impact of the French colonial presence on the development of Vietnamese artistic
identity, as represented in Tran and his father.
Lecigne argues that ‘the ideological efficacy of the Ligne Claire
lies not in what is chosen for depiction, but in the idea that the world is
legible’ (Lecigne 1983 in Miller 2007: 19).
Ligne Claire is a lens through which the world attains some level
of clarity and comprehensibility. Grove writes that many artists ‘reject
Ligne Claire precisely to suggest that life is not always clear
cut, and that the violent ambiguities of society can indeed be worthy of artistic
portrayal’ (Grove, 2010: 183). However, it
is precisely for this reason that Tran uses it here. The story
contained within the Ligne Claire flash-flashback is not a pleasant,
happy childhood memory – in many ways it suggests that Tri had a horrible
childhood, fraught with disappointment and negative experiences – but it is
important to remember that this is what Tri remembers while locked in a small, dark
prison cell. Though his memories are not entirely happy, the lens of Ligne
Claire makes them appear clean cut and puts this narrative in stark
contrast to the cold and dark reality of his situation.
Tran’s use of triggers for each of the three flash-flashbacks is not only an
innovative method of moving the narrative back in time, but also a technique which
mimics the triggering of memory and subsequent regression to memory that occurs in a
traumatic rupture. It is, of course, common to everyone to find that certain stimuli
will trigger a memory but this is more pronounced in an individual who is undergoing
– or has undergone – great stress. In this respect, the suddenness of the
narrative time shift mimics the shifting of personal chronology that can occur in a
traumatic rupture.
At the other end, when the flash-flashback moves forward to Tri in his cell, the
ligne claire panels become increasingly thin, with a bandeau panel
being sliced into sections, creating the effect of a stuttering filmstrip on a
projector. Not only does this give the impression that Tri’s memory is faltering,
but it also hints at a filmic nature of memory – that (normal) memories are
recorded as if on a long strip of film that plays constantly. Tran plays with this idea
most explicitly in the last tier of ligne claire panels, in which
Tri’s thoughts are shown as a stream of slides in a thought bubble (2011: 89) (Figure 3). The structuring of this section with multiple analepsis allows Tran to
explore key events of his father’s past – as well as the effect of these
events on his older self – while also illustrating the nature of memory and
traumatic regression.
Harriet Earle is a PhD student at Keele University, under the supervision of Dr James
Peacock and Dr Tim Lustig. Her research focuses on traumatic representation and
conflict in American comics published since the end of the Vietnam War. She is
especially interested in the comics form and artistic techniques - and how the form
demands a new way of reading that can assist the author in their recreation of
trauma.
‘Emanata’ refers to the lines around a character’s head to
indicate shock, drunkenness or any other number of emotions and states.
‘Grawlixes’ are typographical symbols used to replace words, usually
expletives. Both terms were coined by Mort Walker in The Lexicon of
Comicana (2000).
CaruthC1996BaltimoreJohns Hopkins University PressFreudS2001 [1939]LondonVintageFreudSBreuerJ2000 [1896]LondonVintageGenetteG1972OxfordBlackwellGroveL2010OxfordBerghahnHatfieldC2005JacksonUniversity Press of MississippiHermanJ1992New YorkBasic BooksMillerA2007BristolIntellectTranGB2011New YorkVillardWalkerM2000BloomingtoniUniverse