Entre a presença e a ausência

A estética da destruição em Black River e The Cage

Abstract

This article discusses the representation of devastated spaces in two graphic novels, The Cage, by Martin Vaugh-James, originally published in Canada in 1975, and Black River, by Josh Simmons, published in 2015 in the United States. Black River is clearly a post-apocalyptic narrative, while the insertion of The Cage into a specific genre is more problematic. In any case, both works make use of an aesthetic of ruins derived from a long gothic tradition to put into question the possibility of creating meaning and narrative itself. They invite us to think on the role played by memory and its connection to identity in the extreme scenery of the devastated landscape. If modernity sees the present as a radical rupture from the past, then it may be possible to see in this landscape an allegorical representation of modernity itself and its conflicting relationship with a constantly destroyed past which nevertheless keeps haunting the present with its remains. In this case, it would also be important to investigate the fascination exerted by this space, either as a source of repulsion or an object of desire.