ABSTRACT
This critical content analysis examines four graphic memoirs set in Iran, Libya/Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon, to observe an interplay of “imaginative geographies” that emphasize colonial thought and their impact on the lives of colonial/postcolonial subjects as hybrid personalities. This study examines the ways in which visual images reinterpret and/or challenge a colonial ideology/mindset and how they position the reader. The graphic novels include Baddawi by AbdelRazaq (2015), A Game for Swallows by Abirached (2007), Persepolis by Satrapi (2003), and The Arab of the Future by Sattouf (2015). The research examines connections of the books to the sociopolitical history of the time and place in each novel, the depictions of conflict and violence, and the evolving identities of the protagonists. The critical frame of postcoloniality provides a means to examining concepts of hybridization, othering, and imperial gaze within a specific time and place. The analytical tools of focalization, proximity, drawing style, and ambience are used within this study
