The French Comics Theory Reader - Studies in European Comics and Graphic Novels

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references.; This book presents a collection of key theoretical texts on comics, spanning a period from the 1960s to the 2010s, written in French and never before translated into English. The publication brings a distinctive set of authors together uniting theoretical scholars, artists, journalists, and comics critics. Readers will gain access to important debates that have taken place among major French-language comics scholars, including Thierry Groensteen, Benoit Peeters, Jan Baetens, and Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle, over the past fifty years. The collection covers a broad range of approaches to the medium, including historical, formal, sociological, philosophical, and psychoanalytic. A general introduction provides an overall context, and, in addition, each of the five thematic sections is prefaced by a brief summary of each text and an explanation of how they have influenced later work. The translations are faithful to the originals while reading clearly in English, and, where necessary, cultural references are clarified. Table of Contents: The French Comics Theory Reader: General Introduction -- Section 1. Origins and Definitions -- Introduction -- The Origin of the Term 'Bande DessinEe' (1988) / Jean-Claude Glasser -- The Origins of Stories in Images (1969) / Gerard Blanchard -- Dictionary Definition (1971) / Francis Lacassin -- Graphic Hybridization, the Crucible of Comics (2013) / Thierry Smolderen -- The Elusive Specificity (1986) / Thierry Groensteen -- There is no Specificity at the Number you have Dialled (1986) / Sylvain Bouyer -- Comics and Specificity: Concerning an Article Written in 1986 (2012) / Sylvain Bouyer -- Definitions (2012) / Thierry Groensteen -- Section 2. Formal Approaches to the Study of Comics -- Introduction -- From Linear to Tabular (1976) / Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle -- The Magnifying Glass or the Sponge (1986) / Pierre Sterckx -- Modern Pictorial Enunciative Strategies (1988) / Jacques Samson -- Narration as Supplement: an Archaeology of the Infra-Narrative Foundations of Comics (1988) / Thierry Groensteen -- Texts and Images (1993) / Jan Baetens, Pascal LefEvre -- The Work and its Surround (1993) / Jan Baetens, Pascal LefEvre -- Section 3. French Comics Criticism -- Introduction -- Modern Realism (1983) / Bruno Lecigne, Jean-Pierre Tamine -- Jack Kirby's Apocalypses (2009) / Harry Morgan, Manuel Hirtz -- Image Readings (2009) / Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle -- Laughter: the Absent-Minded Jewels or the Bold Prima Donna (1970) / Michel Serres -- Reading Tintin: The Stolen Jewels (1984/2007) / BenoIt Peeters -- Bianca Castafiore or The Woman and her Jewel (1985) / Serge Tisseron -- Section 4. Reading the French Comics Industry -- Introduction -- The Constitution of the Comics Field (1975) / Luc Boltanski -- The New Disorder (2002) / Pascal Ory -- In Search of the Lost Serial (2009) / Erwin Dejasse, Philippe Capart -- On Indigence (1986) / BarthElEmy Schwartz -- Stay off my Patch (2005) / Jean-Christophe Menu."Publisher Marketing: The French Comics Theory Reader presents a collection of key theoretical texts on comics, spanning a period from the 1960s to the 2010s, written in French and never before translated into English. The publication brings a distinctive set of authors together, uniting theoretical scholars, artists, journalists, and comics critics. Readers will gain access to important debates that have taken place among major French-language comics scholars, including Thierry Groensteen, Benoit Peeters, Jan Baetens, and Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle, over the past fifty years. The collection covers a broad range of approaches to the medium, including historical, formal, sociological, philosophical, and psychoanalytic. A general introduction provides an overall context, and, in addition, each of the four thematic sections is prefaced by a brief summary of each text and an explanation of how they have influenced later work. The translations are faithful to the originals while reading clearly in English, and, where necessary, cultural references are clarified. Contributors Jan Baetens, Gerard Blanchard, Luc Boltanski, Sylvain Bouyer, Philippe Capart, Erwin Dejasse, Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle, Jean-Claude Glasser, Thierry Groensteen, Manuel Hirtz, Francis Lacassin, Bruno Lecigne, Pascal Lefevre, Jean-Christophe Menu, Harry Morgan, Pascal Ory, Benoit Peeters, Jacques Samson, Barthelemy Schwartz, Michel Serres, Thierry Smolderen, Pierre Sterckx, Jean-Pierre Tamine, Serge Tisseron" Contributor Bio:  Miller, Ann Ann Miller, Oxford, United Kingdom, is a University Fellow in French at University of Leicester in Leicester, England. She has published widely on French-language comics. Contributor Bio:  Beaty, Bart Bart Beaty is associate professor of communication and culture at the University of Calgary.