ABSTRACT
The graphic novel as an artefact of popular culture is dynamic in its own right where it offers an alternative discursive space to address issues such as untouchability, oppression and slavery. By combining multiple storytelling modes and genres (biography, history, myth), it plays with and upon older texts. This chapter is a study of A Gardener in the Wasteland (2011) by Srividya Natarajan and Aparajita Ninan (illustrator) and Bhimayana: Experiences of Untouchability by Srividiya Natarajan and S. Anand, and Durgabai Vyam and Subhash Vyam (illustrators) as visual narrative that address caste-based oppression from alternative and diverse perspectives. The two texts present a consistent critical juxtaposition of mythic and historical images with a more contemporary representation to highlight the continuous oppression of Dalits. This chapter explores how iconic and stereotypical images are always used as cultural stimuli of indoctrination (of inferiority) and whether they can be reclaimed as an alternate mode of resistance by the marginalised. It raises the question whether popular images facilitate negotiation with history and myth and delineate the ongoing struggle of marginalisation in contemporary society, or whether they further reinforce stereotypes/assumptions that they may have set out to challenge.
