Grounded in feminist theories, this study examines the narrative representation and deeper meanings of survivor testimony within four webtoons depicting gender-based violence: Ah, I Left My Wallet, Female Middle School Student A, Da I Ari, and 27-10. Through analyzing titles and names, we revealed that protagonists’ ordinary names, common appellations, and everyday titles serve as a strategy to enhance reader identification. By classifying gender-based violence types and extracting their characteristics, we found commonalities in narrative structures across these works, further exploring how unspeakable suffering is represented in each survivor’s narrative.
Findings indicate that diverse comic rendering and expressive techniques effectively visualize the unspeakable pain of gender-based violence survivors. Specifically, Ah, I Left My Wallet uses the personified fragmented self to directly articulate pain. Female Middle School Student A portrays daily fear and aftereffects of abuse via color and non-verbal actions. 27-10 calmly examines childhood sexual violence through counseling and writing. Da I Ari reproduces the typicality and specificity of dating violence, showing power relations via body composition.
Finally, survivor testimony acts as a catalyst for post-traumatic growth and a narrative device reconfiguring the survivor’s present. The faithful representation of listening further underscores society’s crucial role in responding to survivors’ voices among readers.