Between Image and Word: Testimony, Trauma, and Documentary Ethics in First Hand: Graphic Non-Fiction from India

Publication Details

Publication Date

10/09/2026

Volume / Issue

Vol 1, Issue 4 (2026)

Article No.

051

Journal

British Journal of Contemporary Research

DOI

https://doi.org/10.67693/BJCR-V6S4SYFV

Received

29 Aug 2026

Views

3

Downloads

0

Abstract

The rise of graphic non-fiction in India signifies a striking shift in the undercurrents among documentary practices, literary forms, and visual culture. Compiled by Orijit Sen and Vidyun Sabhaney,First Hand: Graphic Non-Fiction from India, Volume 1 (2016) assembles twenty-two narratives that span across various genres including biography, autobiography, oral history, documentary, commentary, and reportage. This anthology is particularly important as it shifts experiences typically conveyed through journalism or prose into the innovative realm of sequential art. Present intellectual discourse aims to deliberate how First Hand addresses the epistemological and ethical challenges associated with depicting lived experiences through an iconotext. Through detailed analyses of selected stories—such as Neha Dixit’s and Orijit Sen’s “The Girl Not from Madras,” Ishita Sharma’s and Priyanka Kumar’s “The Edge of the Map,” and Dhwani Shah’s “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back”—the article posits that the anthology goes beyond merely rendering documentary content visually accessible; it emphasizes the mediation inherent in acts of witnessing. The graphic format provides both immediacy and detachment, combining evidentiary strength with interpretive ambiguity. By drawing on trauma theory, testimony studies, graphic narrative theory, and ethics within documentary contexts, this article suggests that First Hand establishes an ethical framework for witnessing wherein readers must navigate the gaps between reality and representation, testimony and reconstruction, image and text. Thus, its documentary effectiveness lies not in presenting an illusion of direct access to truth but in revealing the processes by which reality can be narratively constructed.

License

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License . Free to read, share, and adapt with attribution.