"Drawing is an act of empathy": From Poverty to Healing in Nora Krug's Belonging and Lynda Barry's One Hundred Demons

Abstract

If a hybrid were a plant, it would be a grafted tree, where blossoms from old wounds grow together to produce an entirely new fruit (Antonetta xxiv, xxvi, xxxiii). This is a visual representation of the healing process that artists experience in creating hybrid works. German illustrator Nora Krug and Filipina cartoonist Lynda Barry come from different backgrounds, but both suffer from psychological impoverishment. As a multifaceted problem, poverty requires a multifaceted approach to healing. The kaleidoscopic nature of the hybrid literary genre allows Krug and Barry to explore a variety of meaning-making forms which enrich their respective memoirs while helping them heal. In Nora Krug's Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, and Lynda Barry's One Hundred Demons, hybridity is a tool of investigation, play, and restoration through which both creators overcome their experiences of poverty and share their stories with wisdom and empathy. [From introductory section]