Platten, D (2017) Windows of Cognition: Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow. Belphegor, 15 (2). ISSN 1499-7185
Abstract
This chapter deliberates the merits of whether French-language comics may be construed as a salient example of a new cultural middlebrow. It argues that the comics artist introduces new ways of seeing shared worlds, stressing the referential aspects typical of the literary middlebrow, but not of the high-brow, which is characterised by a high degree of self-consciousness. Moreover, where these special cognitive windows open out onto social and political realities that trouble a middlebrow audience, they can offer alternative, sometimes challenging perspectives. These claims are tested through analyses of Marjane Satrapi’s contemporary classic Persepolis and Riad Sattouf’s on-going saga L’Arabe du futur. The chapter concludes with a brief digression into the colourful, metaphysical universe of Joann Sfar’s Le Chat du rabbin.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Keywords: | comics, referentiality, Persepolis, aniconism, caricature, Sattouf |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > French (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 23 May 2017 10:06 |
Last Modified: | 03 Dec 2019 15:52 |
Published Version: | http://journals.openedition.org/belphegor/1005 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Dalhousie University |
Identification Number: | 10.4000/belphegor.1005 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:115660 |