Author:
de Figueiredo Camila Augusta P.
Abstract
AbstractHeimat: A German Family Album is a book by author and illustrator Nora Krug, named Best Book of 2018 by The Guardian and The New York Times’ critics. It is a collection of family photos combined with drawings, as well as photographic reproductions of objects and historical documents—such as notebooks, questionnaires, police reports, and letters. The narrative follows Krug’s quest to find out whether any of her relatives took part in the Nazi Party or professed any political views during the regime. In this text, I examine how the medial configurations of graphic memoirs in general, and of Heimat in particular, can communicate truthfulness. Relying on Lars Elleström’s framework, I first discuss the notion of truthfulness in mediated communication. Next, I examine the established tradition in graphic memoirs of using media representation, transmediation, and associated media products in order to claim truthfulness, so that readers accept them as valid demonstrations of a factual narrative. Then I present the case of Heimat, indicating how it sometimes differs from this convention. Finally, I offer a possible explanation for this deviation from the traditional use of media representation in graphic memoirs to convey truthfulness.
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
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