Dystopian necropolitics in Arnau Sanz Martínez’s Un fantasma and the admonitory role of contagion narratives in the Covid-19 era

Bibliographic Data

ID22003172
AuthorsIsaac Veysey-White (Michigan State University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume14
Issue3
Pages351-363
Publication date2023-05-04
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Graphic Novels & Comics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2150-4857 • E-ISSN: 2150-4865
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21504857.2022.2120512
OpenAlexW4295242698
LanguageEN
References cited17

This article analyses the dystopian necropolitics depicted in Un fantasma, which depicts a fictional viral pandemic that gives rise to a brutal military regime, and considers how such a dystopian depiction of pandemics can aid in understanding lived realities with COVID-19 and what these may mean for future social pacts following the global pandemic. Written in 2019 before the onset of COVID-19, the comic enables an analysis of extant social anxieties that existed prior to the pandemic as depicted in Un fantasma, as well as a comparison of this dystopia with what actually came to pass. By engaging with the history of contagion narratives, and also with scholars of dystopia studies, and necropolitics, this article argues that fears of rising authoritarianism that predated the COVID-19 pandemic remain relevant (and in some cases have been augmented) since its outbreak. The comic is an admonitory work; Sanz Martínez’s imagining of what might come to pass in a worldwide pandemic reminds readers what they must strive to prevent during the pandemic in which they are actively living

Aesthetics · Art · Authoritarianism · Biopower · Comics · Democracy · Dictatorship · Dystopia · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Pandemic · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Law · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts