Viruses and Bycicles: the Bildungsroman in the Graphic Memory of PowerPaola

Abstract

In an approach that seeks to transcend the role of literature and cinema in cultural studies, this article frames from comics some of the routes taken by the Bildgunsroman and the Künstlerroman (the "artist novel") in contemporary Latin America based on two graphic novels that mark the stages of the debut feature and the current moment in the career of the Colombian-Ecuadorian PowerPaola: Virus tropical (2009) and Todas las bicicletas que tuve (2022). I employ a variety of theoretical perspectives to address the sometimes productive and sometimes conflictual relationships between Bildgunsroman theories and the cultural product known as the graphic novel, including texts chosen as examples that challenge the white, heterosexual, able-bodied male subject as the norm of the genre with new representations, and themes associated with contemporary Bildgunsroman as a way of thinking about the current tensions between globalization and national identities.