ARTICULATING TRAUMA IN SHAUN TAN’S THE ARRIVAL

Abstract

As a “trans” form of literature, according to Knowles, Peacock and Earle, the graphic novel offers a suitable medium for narrating transitional experiences. Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (2006) demonstrates this by telling a universal yet diverse story of migration and trauma, employing a dreamlike combination of realism and fantasy, and the immediacy of visual expression to represent precarious situations, states and emotions which are almost unrepresentable. A complex dialogue among images and pages, and the slow movement from panel to panel enable the reader to gradually understand the shifts inherent in migrant and traumatic experiences. As words would monopolise attention in Tan’s view and situate the narrative in a particular language, a conspicuous lack of words allows the narrative to communicate across cultures, simultaneously signalling the difficulty of verbally articulating trauma. Relying on studies of the graphic novel and trauma, this paper explores Tan’s narrative strategies for conveying trauma, and portraying migration as a shared and timeless experience. At the same time, the paper examines Tan’s promotion of cross-cultural and cross-species empathy and solidarity, thus avoiding what Stef Craps sees as one of the pitfalls of trauma theory.