Note: This blog post is written for SLIS 672 at IU, Spring 2013
For this week we read The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi which I thoroughly enjoyed. This graphic novel was originally written in French which got me thinking about France/ French-speaking-countries and their comics. In undergrad, my major was French and although we were never assigned to read a full comic you can bet we occasionally read a section from Asterix by René Goscinny or Tintin by Hergé.
Comics, les bandes dessinées (“BD”), are very popular in France. In the US it seems like many people are of the opinion that comics are not for everyone. It’s definitely changing and more and more people are reading comics, but there’s still that stereotype of the comic reader in the US that persists, and many people see it as a sub-culture. In France, it was my observation that comics are widely accepted and read by all kinds of different people.
I studied abroad in Pau, France during spring semester 2010. Near the end of my time there, I did a short internship at a library. Unfortunately, I just went to their website and found out that library is now closed. Anyway, in the US when you walk into a library generally the first things you will come upon are new release/ popular books and the children’s section. That’s because these are two of the most popular areas. At this library in France, the first section one came upon when walking inside was the graphic novels. And for the size of the library (which was fairly small), they had quite a large collection. I spent a lot of my time assisting in circulation, and I saw all kinds of different people browsing and checking out materials from the BD collection.
I did a little bit of research about French comics, and discovered that France has an international comics festival each year: Festival de la Bande Dessinée d’Angoulême. Each year, they give awards for the best works. The author of Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, won in 2005 for Poulet aux Prunes- Chicken With Plums (also made into a movie which will be released on dvd in the US Feb 26). Last year, the award went to Chroniques de Jérusalem- Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle which we will be reading for class in a few weeks! A few of the other winners have had English translations and US publications, but unfortunately many have not.
I looked at the current top selling BD at FNAC which is a popular bookstore and it seemed to be a combination of original French comics and US adaptations (Walking Dead, Spiderman, Avengers, X-Men). I wish more of the popular French comics would get a US publication. It seems to be a very respected form there so I’m sure there are many great titles that could be enjoyed by a wider audience.
I would be interested to know why Graphic Novels have a wider audience compared to the US. I wonder if it has to do with the greater appreciation of the work an artist does. Do you know if it is also a medium integrated into the classroom as well?
Also, out of curiosity, did you read any of Persepolis in French? If so, were things lost in translation?
I don’t know if they’re used in the classroom or not. They have a pretty strict education system so my guess would be mostly not. I’m not sure why they have a wider audience… I think it’s just been a common part of culture for everyone since they began becoming popular (specifically Tintin which began in the 40s).
And no, I didn’t read it in French. If I had a copy I’d definitely try even though my French is already getting pretty rusty.
In the process of acquiring a digital copy, I accidentally downloaded the French version. My French is a little rusty, but I could still understand the gist without referring to a dictionary. Doing a side by side comparison though there were differences in emphasis during some scenes. For example on pg 86 Marji’s Mom is talking about the two fundamentalist men that insulted her. In the French version she calls them “deux salopards de barbus” literally two bearded bastards. In the English version that phrase is translated as “two fundamentalist bastards” and bastards is repeated two more times, while in the French version it wasn’t. The French word for fundamentalist is integriste, and is used on the next page, so the emphasis given to that phrase in the English version isn’t really there in the French version.
I had no idea that you did a fun internship at a library in France! How fabulous! What did you find was generally popular? Which French comics would you recommend? I know you mentioned Asterix by René Goscinny or Tintin by Hergé but I was wondering if you had any others?
It was definitely a great experience. But honestly, I don’t remember what exactly was popular. It was 3 years ago and I wasn’t into comics then so I didn’t really pay much attention.
That is really interesting, Jenna. I have heard of graphic novels / manga that are popular in Asia, and in fact have seen stores even here in the states selling GN in Japanese and Korean, but I never thought about European graphic novels. I wonder if they’d be as popular among our teens as the Japanese ones are.
Your post makes me wish that Wetham’s Seduction of the Innocent and other events in the U.S. never created negative stereotypes against comics. I wish that our culture appreciated all the work that went into this medium like other cultures seem to. Maybe if they were, I would finally be able to read some comics from other countries that I have been meaning to read, such as Cybersix from Argentina.
I had no idea that comics were more mainstream in France! That’s particularly interesting since France is so connected to our ideas of “high culture,” traditionally. I’m really curious as to what initially made comics much more acceptable there. I can see why they wouldn’t have had the same uproar (leading to the Comics Code, etc.) because France is historically less Puritanical, but the artistic acceptance is something I don’t have an easy explanation for. Now I’m really curious.