“My thoughts shifted from the past to the future”: Time and (autobio)graphic representation in Miné Okubo’s Citizen 13660

Peacock

Abstract

This article explores time in Miné Okubo’s graphic memoir Citizen 13660. Drawing on the work of Homi Bhabha, and comics scholars like Thierry Groensteen, it argues that Okubo’s complex representation of time serves several functions. First, it undermines expectations of the linear memoir form by making links between different panels, thus forcing the reader to reconsider historical continuities and breaks. Secondly, it shows how authority figures responsible for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II consciously manipulated ideas of time, history and lineage in order to cast Japanese Americans as dangerous others. Thirdly it reveals, how ironic contrasts between words and images in Citizen 13660 serve to undermine racialized ideological constructions and begin to deconstruct hegemonic ideas about national identity and belonging.

Citation

Peacock. (2016). “My thoughts shifted from the past to the future”: Time and (autobio)graphic representation in Miné Okubo’s Citizen 13660. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 445-463. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2016.1228268

• Acceptance Date: Aug 16, 2016
• Publication Date: Oct 14, 2016
• Journal: Journal of Postcolonial Writing
• Print ISSN: 1744-9855
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 445-463
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2016.1228268
• Keywords: Mine Okubo; Citizen 13660; time; Japanese Americans; World War Two; graphic autobiography
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17449855.2016.1228268