French Literature

The Algerian War of Independence (1954-62), also known as the Algerian Revolution, was a messy and vicious conflict between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front. Waged primarily in Algeria, it severely traumatized citizens on both sides of the Mediterranean, and it continues to have a troubled legacy to this day. Inspired by real events, this poignantly narrated and beautifully illustrated graphic novel tells the story of this confrontation through female protagonists. Algériennes follows the investigative efforts of Beatrice, the daughter of a French-Algerian War veteran. Beatrice's father was never able to talk about what he had experienced during the war. Wanting to know more about this part of her family's history, Beatrice sets off on a voyage of discovery that eventually leads her to Algiers. Along the way, she meets women who recount their experiences during the war. Saïda was a child who made a harrowing escape with her family to France, only to end up in an internment camp. Djamila was a mujahidate rebel who fought alongside the men and witnessed firsthand the barbarity of war. Bernadette was a French woman who refused to leave Algeria after the conflict ended and was ostracized as a pied-noir. Malika was a terrorist bomber fighting on the side of the resistance. Over the course of the narrative, their stories intersect and complete one another, resulting in a powerful and moving picture of what both women and men lived through during the Algerian Revolution—and a clearer understanding of why these events have been, for so many, nearly impossible to discuss.

The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best-seller, tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators—Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father. In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi's Libya, and Assad's Syria—but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan-Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation. Riad, delicate and wide-eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents; his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment. The ultimate outsider, Riad, with his flowing blond hair, is called the ultimate insult...Jewish. And in no time at all, his father has come up with yet another grand plan, moving from building a new people to building his own great palace. This title is also available in French here.

They want to pave paradise and put up a housing development. That's why a multinational team of slave construction workers are clearing the forest just outside the Gaulish town. Will the Gauls be fast enough to stop them and prevent Roman upstarts from moving in? For more in the Asterix series, click here.

Barbarella, with her long hair and sonorous name, her baby face and disdain for needless clothes, finds herself on the planet Lythion, where she has made a forced landing while traveling alone through outer space in her rocket. She is a creature of the future who is confronted with the monsters and robots of the strange planet, and she is put to one test after another. She vanquishes evil in whatever form she finds it, and rewards, in her particular fashion, all the handsome men that she meets during her adventures. And, whether battling sadists or turning her ray gun on gelatinous monsters, she cannot seem to avoid losing all or part of her skin-tight space suit.

2019 Eisner Award Winner for Best U.S. Edition of International Material. Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable spirit. With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies.

John Difool, a low-class detective in a degenerate dystopian world, finds his life turned upside down when he discovers an ancient, mystical artifact called 'The Incal.' Difool’s adventures will bring him into conflict with the galaxy’s greatest warrior, the Metabaron, and will pit him against the awesome powers of the Technopope. These encounters and many more make up a tale of comic and cosmic proportions that has Difool fighting for not only his very survival, but also the survival of the entire universe.

Available in English for the very first time, In the Kitchen with Alain Passard is the first graphic novel to enter the kitchen of a master chef. Over the course of three years, illustrator Christophe Blain trailed acclaimed chef Alain Passard through his kitchens and gardens. With simple yet sublime drawings and thousands of colorful panels, this book gives the reader an inside, uncensored look at the world of Passard, who shocked the food universe in 2001 by removing meat from the menu at his celebrated Paris restaurant, L'Arpege, and dedicating himself to serving vegetables from his own organic farms. This irresistible hardcover combines a portrait of an amazing chef, an inside look at his creative process, and a humorous riff on fine dining culture—plus fifteen recipes for the home kitchen—in one haute cuisine comic book for foodies!

World War I, that awful, gaping wound in the history of Europe, has long been an obsession of Jacques Tardi's. (His very first—rejected—comics story dealt with the subject, as does his most recent work, the two-volume Putain de Guerre.) But It Was the War of the Trenches is Tardi's defining, masterful statement on the subject, a graphic novel that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. Tardi is not interested in the national politics, the strategies, or the battles. Like Remarque, he focuses on the day to day of the grunts in the trenches, and, with icy, controlled fury and disgust, with sardonic yet deeply sympathetic narration, he brings that existence alive as no one has before or since. Yet he also delves deeply into the underlying causes of the war, the madness, the cynical political exploitation of patriotism. And in a final, heartbreaking coda, Tardi grimly itemizes the ghastly human cost of the war, and lays out the future 20th century conflicts, all of which seem to spring from this global burst of insanity. Trenches features some of Tardi's most stunning artwork. Rendered in an inhabitually lush illustrative style, inspired both by abundant photographic documentation and classic American war comics, augmented by a sophisticated, gorgeous use of Craftint tones, trenches is somehow simultaneously atypical and a perfect encapsulation of Tardi's mature style. It is the indisputable centerpiece of Tardi's oeuvre...

Guy Delisle expertly lays the groundwork for a cultural road map of contemporary Jerusalem, utilizing the classic stranger in a strange land point of view that made his other books, Pyongyang, Shenzhen, and Burma Chronicles required reading for understanding what daily life is like in cities few are able to travel to. In Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Delisle explores the complexities of a city that represents so much to so many. He eloquently examines the impact of the conflict on the lives of people on both sides of the wall while drolly recounting the quotidian: checkpoints, traffic jams, and holidays. When observing the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim populations that call Jerusalem home, Delisle's drawn line is both sensitive and fair, assuming nothing and drawing everything. Jerusalem showcases once more Delisle's mastery of the travelogue.

The French comic strip hero Bécassine first appeared in 1905 in the first issue of La Semaine de Suzette—a French magazine targeted towards girls. Bécassine is one of the first female protagonists in French comics.

In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the coming-of-age story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane's child's-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

Snowpiercer is the enthralling and thought-provoking post-apocalyptic graphic novel that inspired the critically acclaimed movie starring Chris Evans (Captain America, Fantastic Four). Originally published in French, this marks the first time that Snowpiercer will be available in English. In a harsh, uncompromisingly cold future where Earth has succumbed to treacherously low temperatures, the last remaining members of humanity travel on a train while the outside world remains encased in ice. The surviving community are not without a social hierarchy; those that travel at the front of the train live in relative luxury whilst those unfortunate enough to be at the rear remain clustered like cattle in claustrophobic darkness. Yet, things are about to change aboard the train as passengers become disgruntled...

To prepare for Besson's upcoming film, here's the complete collection of Valerian and Laureline's adventures in English at last—including one unpublished volume, a longer cut of another, and a lot of details on the collaboration between the director and the authors! This first volume of the collection contains books 1 and 2 of the series: The City of Shifting Waters—in its original two-part, 9 pages longer format—and The Empire of a Thousand Planets. It also includes book 0, Bad Dreams, translated into English for the first time: the very first adventures of our two heroes, published after City and retroactively numbered. Finally, linking the volumes of this collection together, a long, exclusive interview with the authors and director Luc Besson is illustrated with new art as well as numerous sketches, studies and photographs from the latter's upcoming big-screen adaptation.

The decolonization of Algeria represents a turning point in world history, marking the end of France's colonial empire, the birth of the Algerian republic, and the appearance of the Third World and pan-Arabism. Algeria emerged from colonial domination to negotiate the release of American hostages in Iran during the Carter administration. Radical Islam would later rise from the ashes of Algeria's failed democracy, leading to a civil war and the training of Algerian terrorists in Afghanistan. Moreover, the decolonization of Algeria offered an imperfect model of decolonization to other nations like South Africa that succeeded in abolishing apartheid while retaining its white settler population. Algeria and its war of national liberation therefore constitute an inescapable reference for those looking to understand today's ;war on terror' and ever-expanding islamophobia in Western media circuits. Consequently, it is imperative that students and educators understand the global implications of the Algerian War and how to best approach this conflict in school and at home so as to learn from the consequences of misrepresentation at all levels of the memory transmission chain. These objectives are all the more important today given the West's misunderstanding and mischaracterization of Islam, the Arab Spring, the Muslim-majority world, and, most importantly, the continuing influence of French colonialism—especially in the postcolonial era. Conceived as a case study, The Algerian War in French-Language Comics: Postcolonial Memory, History, and Subjectivity argues that comics provide an alternative to textbook representations of the Algerian War in France because they draw from many of the same source materials yet produce narratives that are significantly different. This book demonstrates that although comics rely on conventional vectors of memory transmission like national education, the family, and mainstream media, they can also create new and productive dialogues using these same vectors in ways unavailable to traditional textbooks. From this perspective, these comics are an effective and alternative way to develop a more inclusive social consciousness.

The latest installment of Yale French Studies explores the history and development of bande dessinée, Franco-Belgian comics. This special issue of Yale French Studies on bande dessinée is a multifaceted reflection on its newfound academic status. It goes beyond the question, settled long ago, of its artistic legitimacy but aims to think 'outside the boxes,' or cases, themselves in order to explore the mutually enriching relationship between BD and the wider francophone cultural and intellectual world. Contributions thus intersect with art history, literary theory, cinema studies, postcolonialism, semiotics, and political sociology. Articles are by mainstream interdisciplinary scholars applying themselves to BD, leading authorities on bande dessinée itself, BD artists, and key figures in contemporary French thought whose texts appear in English for the first time.

Although France has changed much in recent decades, colonial-era imagery continues to circulate widely in comics, in part because the colonial archives are easily accessible, and through the republication of colonial-era comics that are viewed as classics. The latter include the Tintin series of comic books, by the Belgian artist Hergé, and the 'Zig and Puce' series by Alain Saint-Ogan, a Frenchman. In this important new study Mark McKinney situates comics in debates about French colonialism, arguing that cartoonists still use representations of colonial history in their comics as a way of intervening in debates about contemporary France and its current relationships to its former colonies. McKinney argues that comics offer unique opportunities to both reproduce and thereby perpetuate colonial ideologies, images and discourses, as well as to deconstruct and contest them. The ways, and the degree to which, they do one or the other tell us a great deal about the heritage of imperialism and colonialism

Whereas in English-speaking countries comics are for children or adults 'who should know better', in France and Belgium the form is recognized as the 'Ninth Art' and follows in the path of poetry, architecture, painting and cinema. The bande dessinée [comic strip] has its own national institutions, regularly obtains front-page coverage and has received the accolades of statesmen from De Gaulle onwards. On the way to providing a comprehensive introduction to the most francophone of cultural phenomena, this book considers national specificity as relevant to an anglophone reader, whilst exploring related issues such as text/image expression, historical precedents and sociological implication. To do so it presents and analyses priceless manuscripts, a Franco- American rodent, Nazi propaganda, a museum-piece urinal, intellectual gay porn and a prehistoric warrior who's really Zinedine Zidane.

In Belgium, France, Switzerland, and other French-speaking countries, many well-known comics artists have focused their attention on historical and political events. In works ranging from comic books and graphic novels to newspaper strips, cartoonists have addressed such controversial topics as French and Belgian collaboration and resistance during World War II, European colonialism and U.S. imperialism, anti-Semitism in France, the integration of African immigrant groups in Europe, and the green and feminist movements. History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels collects new essays that address comics from a variety of viewpoints, including a piece from practicing artist Baru. The explorations range from discussion of such canonical works as Hergé's Tintin series to such contemporary expressions as Baru's Road to America (2002), about the Algerian War. Included are close readings of specific comics series and graphic novels, such as Cécile Vernier Danehy's examination of Cosey's Saigon Hanoi, about remembering the Vietnam War. Other writers use theoretical lenses as a means of critiquing a broad range of comics, such as Bart Beaty's Bourdieu-inspired reading of today's comics field, and Amanda Macdonald's analysis of bandes dessinées (French comic books) in New Caledonia during the 1990s. The anthology establishes the French-language comics tradition as one rich with representations of history and politics and is one of the first English-language collections to explore the subject.

This collection of essays explores the interconnections between the modalities of expression and representation in French-language comics and that of other media. These individual analyses discuss mixed media uses of comic art and film, literature, reportage, painting, photography, religious iconography, history and memory studies, video games, and music. The essays included in this volume also examine, more widely, the connections between image, reality, and memory, as well as the relationship between comics, cultural capital, and the artistic tradition...

Postcolonialism and migration are major themes in contemporary French comics and have roots in the Algerian War (1954–1962), anti-racist struggle, and mass migration to France. This volume studies comics from the formal dismantling of the French colonial empire in 1962 up to the present. French cartoonists of ethnic minority and immigrant heritage are a major focus, including Zeina Abirached (Lebanon), Yvan Alagbé (Benin), Baru (Italy), Enki Bilal (former Yugoslavia), Farid Boudjellal (Algeria and Armenia), José Jover (Spain), Larbi Mechkour (Algeria), and Roland Monpierre (Guadeloupe). The author analyses comics representing a gamut of perspectives on immigration and postcolonial ethnic minorities, ranging from staunch defense to violent rejection. Individual chapters are dedicated to specific artists, artistic collectives, comics, or themes, including including avant-gardism, undocumented migrants in comics, and racism in far-right comics.

Redrawing French Empire in Comics by Mark McKinney investigates how comics have represented the colonization and liberation of Algeria and Indochina. It focuses on the conquest and colonization of Algeria (from 1830), the French war in Indochina (1946-1954), and the Algerian War (1954-1962). Imperialism and colonialism already featured prominently in nineteenth-century French-language comics and cartoons by Töpffer, Cham, and Petit. As society has evolved, so has the popular representation of those historical forces. French torture of Algerians during the Algerian War, once taboo, now features prominently in comics, especially since 2000, when debate on the subject was reignited in the media and the courts. The increasingly explicit and spectacular treatment in comics of the more violent and lurid aspects of colonial history and ideology is partly due to the post-1968 growth of an adult comics production and market. For example, the appearance of erotic and exotic, feminized images of Indochina in French comics in the 1980s indicated that colonial nostalgia for French Indochina had become fashionable in popular culture. Redrawing French Empire in Comics shows how contemporary cartoonists such as Alagbé, Baloup, Boudjellal, Ferrandez, and Sfar have staked out different, sometimes conflicting, positions on French colonial history.

The first work to address violence against women in the 9th art, À coups de cases et de bulles is able to show the way in which Franco-Belgian comics, and also manga treat attacks and violence. Comics, which continue to open new projects and revisit already established areas, either by renewing them or by placing them in a tradition, continue to engage the imagination of contemporary societies. Daily newspapers, weeklies and quarterlies now give more and more space, but this is rarely the case for brutality, insults and rapes they suffer. And yet, the graphic stories are full of women victims of the most diverse forms of violence: forced marriages, humiliation, physical attacks, rape. Comic strips relate to the testimony and literature of reality, others belong to the register of the imagination, but all deal with a universal scourge, sometimes in a single panel, other times in several pages. The aim of this work is to reverse common perspectives, to show that women are not confined to the category of seductive women, nor to that of stooges, nor to those of sole victims. Indeed, even humiliated, brutalized, martyred, they retain their dignity or their pride.