Interrogating Triple Marginalization through Refugeehood and Disability in the Graphic Narrative When Stars are Scattered

Abstract

In the contemporary literary trends, refugee literature foregrounds childhood and adulthood as the critical phases through which refugee trauma, identity disruption and border politics are scrutinized. As it leaves a critical scholarly gap in representing disrupted adolescence passage and disability through refugeehood, particularly within the graphic narratives. This research paper critiques that the graphic memoir When Stars Are Scattered as a representation of triple marginalization, in which refugee status, non-normative adolescence developmental challenges and disability as reinforcing conditions than the sites of vulnerability. By the highlighting the traumatic experiences faced by Omar and his non-verbal brother Hassan in Dadaab refugee camp, the graphic narrative addresses how liminal zone transforms into the space of uncertainty and precarity. The article further addresses that disability is shaped only through bodily difference, but through educational constraints, institutional neglect, and restricted mobility. By incorporating visual and textual analysis, the article proposes the concept of triple marginalization as a conceptual framework to understand the multidimensions of vulnerability and intersectionality of disability studies, refugee studies and graphic narratives.