Drawing the Unseen: Trauma and the Invisibility of Class in Zeina Abirached’s Graphic Narratives on the Lebanese Civil War

Abstract

This paper explores the themes of visibility and invisibility in Zeina Abirached’s graphic memoirs, A Game for Swallows and I Remember Beirut, focusing on the experiences of war-torn Lebanese communities marginalized both politically and socio-economically. Through monochromatic imagery and a fragmented narrative structure, Abirached’s works make visible the silent, everyday anxieties of individuals navigating conflict zones, portraying the psychological weight of survival in constrained spaces. These narratives do not simply depict life in a war zone; they reveal the emotional labor involved in maintaining normalcy under siege, rendering the often-invisible burdens of trauma and displacement visible to the reader. Central to this analysis is the concept of social class as a lived experience within these narratives, one that subtly surfaces in the physical and emotional limitations imposed on working-class families. While the memoirs primarily articulate the trauma of war, they also shed light on how class-based precarity shapes individuals’ capacities for safety, agency, and recovery. Through images of barricaded windows, clustered living spaces, and makeshift shelters, Abirached’s art captures the overlooked spatial and socio-economic constraints that circumscribe lives during conflict. In positioning trauma within these spaces of precarity, the study argues that graphic memoirs hold a distinctive power to challenge traditional boundaries of visibility. By visually articulating the lived realities of marginalized communities, Abirached's work offers a counternarrative to dominant portrayals of war, foregrounding art’s role in amplifying unseen lives and unspoken histories. This paper thus contributes to discourse on the intersections of class, visibility, and trauma, positing graphic art as a potent medium for social critique and transformation.