Humour, Emotional Sustenance and Affective Care in Phoebe Potts’s Good Eggs

Abstract

Despite the technological advancement in healthcare with the intervention of robots in care units replacing human care, the lack of visceral connection in posthuman care technologies has become a serious concern. With the healthcare system becoming more and more commercialized, human connections and affective care for patients has become a challenge. Graphic pathographies underscore the significance of non-human entities as emotional caregivers to humans particularly during illness through comic affordances. The affective relationality between animals and human beings have become compatible entities when compared to posthuman care technologies. With reference to Phoebe Potts’ Good Eggs, a graphic memoir about infertility experience, this paper analyses the zooeyiatic care provided by Phoebe’s cat, the non-human entity. This paper unravels the humor, emotional support and care provided by the pet as a prospective stand-in for humans. By analysing selective panels from Potts’ Good Eggs, the paper debunks the idea of anthropocentrism in medical care and stresses how human-animal coexistence can aid emotional well being during times of mental agony relative to physical health concerns.