Ecosophical Exploration of War and Violence in Graphic Novel Vanni: A Representational Visual Meta-Function Analysis

Abstract

The present study focuses on the correlation between ecosophy and visual grammar. For this purpose, this study incorporates Guattari’s ecosophy through the model of Kress and Van Leeuwen’s visual grammar(2006) to trace the environmental crisis in the graphic novel ‘Vanni: A Family’s Struggle through the Sri Lankan Conflict’ (2009). The study is qualitative in nature based on multimodal discourse analysis. The findings of the study developed arguments for an ecosophical lens as a way of creating a change of vision within our ethical, social, and political spaces. Through the representational, interactive, and compositional meanings represented in Vanni's visuals, Felix Guattari's ecosophies highlight the trauma of war and its impact on people and the environment.