Comics’ ability to promote empathy has been well-researched. “Human emotional responses,” according to Suzanne Keen in an article discussing narrative empathy, “precede cognitive processes […] via fast, unconscious recognition of facial [and bodily] expression” (1). Keen goes on to explain that even the simplest line drawing of facial expressions “activates the […] subcortical bases of emotions” before the slower conscious reactions (1). In short, illustrations promote unconscious empathy by capitalizing on our ability to visually code emotional responses before processing written words.
Phil and Kaja Foglio’s gaslamp fantasy adventure comic Girl Genius takes visual empathy promotion even further, playing human characters against what they call “clanks” and “constructs:” characters enhanced or created by sparks (who are human, but also mad scientific geniuses). By playing the visually human characters against the visually inhuman (who are still clearly capable of emotion) in situations requiring empathy from both readers and characters, the Foglios set up a hierarchy determining which character classes deserve the most empathy. The humans explicitly dehumanize constructs, many of whom look and act just as human as they, themselves, do. This is further clarified in the accompanying novels, when the heroine, a spark named Agatha Heterodyne, discusses the constructs who raised her and her growing understanding that constructs are “second-class citizens” seen as “servants and buffoons” (Foglio 52). Her heroism, aside from the usual strength and intelligence assigned to adventure heroes, lies in her ability to empathize with or vilify other characters regardless of their visual (in)humanity.
Phil and Kaja Folio’s Girl Genius series therefore interrogates the intersection between being in a powerful ingroup (here represented as humans) and being worthy of that group’s empathy by refusing to explicitly classify clanks, constructs, and other spark-created beings’ level of earned empathy except for through Agatha’s deconstruction of other sparks’ anti-construct prejudices.
About the presenterEliana Berger
Eliana Berger is a Washington D.C. native with passions for information literacy education, eighteenth-century feminist literature, and the power of the graphic novel. Currently, Eliana is working on earning her MLIS at Simmons University. When she isn’t working or studying, Eliana enjoys (re)reading Jane Austen, playing the flute and guitar, and hiking over every mountain she comes across. She hopes to make the world a more informed, equitable place one project at a time.