Inducing of Readers’ Empathy through the Representation of History in Graphic Narratives with Particular Reference to Orijit Sen’s The River of Stories

Abstract

The present paper aims itself as an investigation whether a historical graphic narrative with the help of its engaging representation of history might be able to induce a reader’s empathy or not. It attempts to highlight and explore the empathic details in Orijit Sen’s historical graphic text, The River of Stories. Though it is a debatable issue whether every work of art should have an objective or not, the reader finds Sen’s social and political purpose of making people aware of the details of the protest and its horrific and crude consequences against the construction of a dam on the river Narmada and the consequent inducing of empathy into them. Hence, heart-rending details of their protest and the adverse effects which induce readers’ empathy are portrayed artistically and proficiently by Sen through the entire gamut of the story.