ABSTRACT

Positioned at the intersection of comics studies and gender studies, this article examines the process in which the ‘performance’ of Ram Devineni’s comic Priya and the Lost Girls (2019), with a honing narrative intertwined with Augmented Reality, sensitizes its readers towards the issue of sex/human trafficking in India. Throughout the enigmatic journey, Priya, the superheroine in the narrative comes to rescue several women who have fallen into the trap of the sex trafficking racket either due to economical vulnerabilities or some other issues. Priya, in the leading role of a ‘Messiah’ liberates these victims and provides message at the end. The compelling visual metaphors, designs, speech balloons, and the audio elements in this comic pose compelling questions pertaining to the castrated and unsusceptible position of victims in the society and encourage maintaining healthy social relations among people. Within the postulates of gender studies, comics studies, and visual studies, our reading focuses on how comics medium in Ram Devineni’s Priya and the Lost Girls contributes to the process of social sensitization and extend awareness on the prevention, protection, and prosecution of sex trafficking in South Asian countries, especially in the Indian subcontinent.

摘要

本文定位于漫画研究和性别研究的交叉点，考察了拉姆·德维尼尼的漫画《普里亚与迷失的女孩》的“表演”过程。（2019 年）的叙述与增强现实交织在一起，使读者对印度的性/人口贩运问题敏感。在整个神秘的旅程中，故事中的超级英雄普里亚来营救几名因经济脆弱或其他问题而落入性交易陷阱的女性。Priya 在“弥赛亚”的领导角色中解放了这些受害者并在最后提供了信息。这部漫画中引人入胜的视觉隐喻、设计、语音气球和音频元素提出了有关受害者在社会中被阉割和不敏感的地位的引人入胜的问题，并鼓励维持人与人之间健康的社会关系。在性别研究、漫画研究和视觉研究的假设中，Priya and the Lost Girls为南亚国家，特别是印度次大陆的社会宣传和提高对预防、保护和起诉性交易的认识做出了贡献。