Espacios en blanco: Historical Memory, Defeat, and the Comics Imaginary

Abstract

Tahmassian convincingly argues that graphic narratives are a formidable ground for the recuperation of historical memory in Spain. Focusing on Miguel Francisco’s Espacios en blanco, Tahmassian explores the tension between melancholy’s destructive and creative potentials. She explains that graphic narratives productively render the problem of transmission of memory legible, as a hybrid practice between writing about the past and conveying why there are parts of the past that resist inscription, as well as the circumstances under which they erupt into the present. As such, the intertwining of history, memory, trauma, and self-fashioning in Espacios en blanco leads to a fruitful encounter with the past.