Graphic novels as potential actors to increase gender-based violence awareness in the English literature classroom

Using graphic novels in English literature classrooms to address important issues related to gender studies can create safe spaces where students can notice how gender-based violence transgresses temporal, spatial, and cultural borders. Graphic novels with their transmedial forms that interweave words and images help students identify internalised social norms that lead to gender-based violence in ways that may be closer to current generations than classical forms of literature. This article specifically focalises two graphic novels written by women, Özge Samancı’s Dare to Disappoint: Growing up in Turkey and Barbara Stok’s The Philosopher, the Dog and the Wedding, to reveal how gender-based violence is caused by patriarchal norms in mainly four different forms; namely physical, psychological, rhetorical and social. Both graphic novelists use similar discursive practices while utilising humour as a tool even when describing severe acts of violence such as sexual assault. The similarities in Samancı and Stok’s narratives despite their historical, national and cultural differences show their potential to aid students in empathising with women characters who are often overlooked or portrayed in stereotypical representations of femininity that only exist in supporting roles in the graphic novel genre. Therefore, the main aim of this article is to emphasise the importance of using graphic novels in the English literature classrooms as potential actors to create awareness against gender-based violence while exposing the transcultural dynamics of patriarchy.