Following the Red String: The Infrastructure of the Graphic Narrative in Lemire’s „Mazebook”

Aćamović, Bojana (2025) Following the Red String: The Infrastructure of the Graphic Narrative in Lemire’s „Mazebook”. In: Književnost i strip: zbornik radova. Beograd : Institut za književnost i umetnost, pp. 127-139. ISBN 978-86-7095-348-2

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Abstract

The paper analyzes the graphic novel „Mazebook” (2021) created by Canadian comic book author Jeff Lemire. Lemire’s story of a father who struggles to overcome the trauma of losing the daughter relates to a number of literary works, from classical mythology to contemporary literature. The present focus is on the maze motif, taken from the Greek myth of King Minos, the Minotaur, and Theseus, and the manner in which it is present not only on the level of themes, but also as an underlying principle of graphic organization of the work, or what we will here refer to as the ”infrastructure” of the graphic novel. The analysis relies on the recent studies examining infrastructure as a cultural phenomenon and the ways it appears in literature, which seems to be particularly pertinent to the readings of graphic narratives. In Lemire’s „Mazebook”, the maze and the accompanying red string are omnipresent throughout the narrative as elements connecting the protagonist to his deceased daughter as well as metaphors indicating the protagonist’s emotional state, while on the graphic level, they function as infrastructural devices drawing attention to Lemire’s innovations in the page layout.

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