“I Found It Again. My Home.”: The Role of Art in the Mediation of Trauma and Loss in Station Eleven

This project examines the role of the fictional graphic novel – “Station Eleven” – at the center of HBO’s Station Eleven as a form of trauma mediation. The graphic novel serves as a central, physical object in the show through which the characters Miranda, Kirsten, and Tyler process trauma, find comfort, and connect with others. I trace the creation process of “Station Eleven,” from Miranda’s original doodles as a child to the surviving physical copies in the hands of Kirsten and Tyler, exploring how each character engages with the artwork. Situating my analysis within a theoretical framework of contemporary trauma theory, expanding the Freudian, Euro-centric, individualized model, I argue art in Station Eleven serves as a reparative, spiritual, and collective medium through which the individual characters directly and their communities cope with trauma and grieve loss. Through my analysis of how “Station Eleven” is used by Miranda, Kirsten, and Tyler as a mediator for trauma, I argue that, when the global scale of communication becomes inoperable, local collectives, collective memory, and shared storytelling become essential parts of trauma mediation