Week 8 - Habibi by Craig Thompson
Annaïck Guena

Habibi is a graphic novel of Craig Thompson, published by Faber and Faber in America, and by Casterman in France, in 2011. 

In an imaginary country in Middle East, Dodola, an Arab girl, is sold into marriage by her parents, when she is still a child. Her husband, a scribe, teaches her to read and write. She learns calligraphy and discovers Koran’s stories.

Her husband is killed, and Dodola is kidnapped by slave sellers. She runs way with an abandoned black child of three years old, Zam. Dodola becomes his sister, his mother, his lover. 

They live together in the desert during nine years. He has to find water and she must bring back some food by prostituting herself. She is captured again and is a prisoner of the sultan’s harem in Wanatolia. Zam, desperate, decides to become eunuch.

All these years, she tells him Koran’s stories like in The Tales of Arabian Night. Imagination and religious novels help them survive and overcome difficulties and ordeals. 

In this non-conventional comic, Craig Thompson mixes Koranic stories with the story of the characters in an orientalist aesthetic. Arabian ornaments and calligraphy give rhythm to the drawing and the story. In this way, the illustrator proposes a poetic vision of Islam.

This serious graphic novel speaks about environment, spirituality, religion, sexuality and status of wen in the society.

Habibi, “My Darling”, is in a first time a novel about love. (237)

 

 

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/16/habibi-craig-thompson-review

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/books/review/habibi-written-and-illustrated-by-craig-thompson-book-review.html?pagewanted=all