Back to the Roots: Contemporary Kazakh And Mexican Graphic Novels

Abstract

The pre-colonial setting has been a great source of inspiration for young comic book artists in Kazakhstan and Mexico. If artists such as Eduardo Ancer and Gonzalo Alvarez use pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, its ancient culture, and mythology, Kazakh artists such as Madi Musabekov and Orazkhan Zhakyp heavily focus on Turkic mythology and the formation of the Kazakh Khanate in their works. The trending search for cultural background and ancestral reconnection can represent an interesting stage of postcolonial development and the formation of cultural identity among the youth. Unlike Mexico, which has fought for its acknowledgment in postcolonial studies, Kazakhstan still cannot redefine its post-Soviet experience as postcolonial. Both countries, similarly to many other postcolonial nations, have been experiencing a crisis of cultural and national identity, particularly the youth that stays in-between cultures. With the reemergence of transculturalism, which proposes acceptance of cultural fluidity, there is a challenge in its co-existence with the reinforcement of precolonial history through graphic novels. Since the project focuses on the cultural identity of youth, graphic novels demonstrate a promising discussion of postcolonialism and contemporary youth resistance. Thus, with this project, I attempt to redefine the concept of ‘postcolonial graphic novels’ and analyze the reconstruction of Kazakh and Mexican cultural identity through postcolonial and transcultural perspectives.