Documentary Comics as Medium of Historical Memory in Colombia: Covers, Paratexts, and Graphic Narratives in three Contemporary Works

Abstract

This dissertation examines documentary comics as a medium of historical memory in Colombia within the context of the armed conflict and the narratives of victims from marginalized communities. It conceptualizes historical memory as a mechanism that upholds victims’ rights to truth and memory, and analyzes how institutions such as the Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica and Fundación del Sinú have incorporated victims’ testimonies in comics. Within this framework, victims—primarily peasants—are understood as a community engaged in the collective reconstruction of their past and in processes of social transformation. Focusing on three documentary comics—Historia gráfica de la lucha por la tierra en la costa atlántica (Chalarka, 1985), Sin mascar palabra: por los caminos de Tulapas (CNMH, 2018b), and La Palizúa: ustedes no saben cómo ha sido esta lucha (CNMH, 2018a)—the study investigates how historical memory is represented through verbal-pictorial elements in covers, paratexts, and graphic narratives. Methodologically, it draws on the distinction between story and discourse and combines close and wide reading strategies to analyze both content and form. The dissertation argues that documentary comics function as collaborative platforms for historical memory reconstruction, where victims and researchers work cooperatively to create narratives that challenge dominant accounts and foreground the agency of rural communities affected by violence.