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@article{193205,
        author = {Shalini M and Dr. Ramesh M},
        title = {Queer Joy and Closure: Rethinking the Ending of The Graphic Novel Kari},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {},
        volume = {12},
        number = {no},
        pages = {15-20},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=193205},
        abstract = {Queer joy being the radical affective stance fighting marginalization, is increasingly redirected and reabsorbed into heteronormative narratives that equates happiness with romantic closure, social assimilation, and linear resolution. This paper concentrates on the question, “Must queer joy culminate in a happy ending?” investigating how joy should resist romantic closure, refuse normative timelines, and continue to be affectively open. Using Amruta Patil’s Graphic novel Kari as the primary text, the study explores how queer joy manifests in solitude, fragmentation, and self-discovery. It challenging the hegemonic culture that equates fulfilment with romantic partnership and resolution.
Kari offers a visual and narrative grammar of queer temporality with its grayscale palette and episodic structure, reflecting on finding joy in self-discovery, and chosen kinship rather than romantic success. The analysis draws on José Esteban Muñoz’s theory of queer futurity, Sara Ahmed’s critique of the happiness imperative, and Elizabeth Freeman’s chrononormativity to argue that queer joy is not a destination, but a mode of being in ambiguity. By dissociating joy from closure, this paper advocates for an inclusive and boarder understanding of queer lives that embraces failure, solitude, and nonlinear time as valid as heteronormative lives. The study contributes to global queer media scholarship by centring South Asian graphic narratives simultaneously expanding the affective approach to queer joy.},
        keywords = {Queer Joy, Narrative Closure, Chrononormativity, Queer Temporality, Graphic Narrative},
        month = {},
        }