Date of Award

1-1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Hubbard, Melanie

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

This thesis examines the significance of the speculative element of time travel in young adult graphic novels. The graphic novel format and its visual elements facilitate understanding of a fractured identity resulting from trauma. The speculative work of time travel allows consideration of “what-ifs.” This thesis focuses on three graphic novels, Displacement by Kiku Hughes, Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn, and Orange by Ichigo Takano, in order to explore how time travel serves as a metaphor for the processing of trauma. These young adult graphic novels explore how someone’s relationship to time changes in the wake of traumatic events. The work of time travel facilitates the discussion of traumatic time, primarily by showing how the initial wound of trauma compels re-experience, as time travel constantly intercedes in the young adult’s life. Just as in the journeys of the young adults in these works, trauma is explored in many ways, including through the lens of Postmemory and trauma's reverberations within ancestral and social communities.

Download

Share

COinS