Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s <i>Guantánamo Diary</i> through the Lens of In_Visibility

Abstract

This article reads Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s Guantánamo Diary as an intermedial occasion to stage questions on the axis of in_visibility. The concept of in_visibility constructs the methodological and hermeneutical approach of the paper. The book is analyzed as an intermedial example through the lens of the archive structure where two distinct medial voices emerge—one textual, that of the Guantánamo detainee, and one visual, that of the black bars of redacted text that regularly interrupt and brutally abuse Slahi’s narrative. What makes the intermedial work extraordinary is the powerful encounter between visibility and invisibility, concepts that exchange their semiotic significance and are reevaluated. By analyzing the intermedial narratological techniques of Guantánamo Diary, this article describes the complexity of the in_visibility concept and destabilizes its normative connotations.