African Comics and Medical Discourse
A Study of Benjamin Kouadio’s John Koutoukou: le sida tue, et alors? as a Narrative Pathography
Keywords:
Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Medical Humanities, African comics, Graphic Pathography, Visual MetaphorsAbstract
The study on comics and its interdisciplinary relationship with medicine has become increasingly recognized around the world due to the emergence of the new field of medical humanities. Although Africa produces its graphic writings, studies on African comics are minimal and its contribution to medical discourse has not been fully brought to light in African literature. In this study, I aim to investigate how African comics engage with medical discourse in Benjamin Kouadio’s John Koutoukou: le sida tue, et alors? which mirrors the city of Abidjan's HIV/AIDS epidemic. Based on visual discourse and conceptual metaphor theory, I intend to closely examine the visual metaphors and metonymies that the author uses to convey feelings and empathy in an attempt to promote his therapeutic education, to deconstruct stereotypes against the sufferers, and raise awareness among the Ivorian public as regards the ravage of HIV/AIDS. The cognitive architecture and the organization of the graphic modality of the narrative depend on the author’s artistic ideology, constructing the graphic characterization, the verbal expressivity of the characters, and the spatio-temporal elements which are evoked in the visually scenic topographies of Kouadio’s "pathography". It is imperative, therefore, to interrogate pictorial runes which the illustrator evokes to demonstrate the psychological state of the characters for educational purposes. Bubbles, flying cap, falling hat, question mark, icons, etc., are metaphorical signifiers that are infused with cultural meanings, denoting surprise, fear, joy, and all the negative emotions that should censure the sexual attitudes of the Ivorian public. In its medical discourse, Kouadio's narrative pathography points us to the danger of HIV/AIDS and how to curtail its spread in African cities.
Keywords: Conceptual Metaphor theory, Medical humanities, African comics, Graphic pathography, Visual metaphors
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