Between conformity and the abyss

Barbara Yelin’s graphic novels tell of women caught between personal responsibility and social constraints. ‘Irmina’ shows how a young woman becomes a Nazi sympathiser, while ‘Gift’ (Poison) depicts a woman’s downfall under the pressure of social norms. In ‘Emmie Arbel. The Color of Memory’, we meet a Holocaust survivor who endured multiple concentration camps as a child and still lives with the consequences. Anette Gehrig and Dominique Grisard discuss responsibility, memory, scope for individual action, and societal influences.