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Known as France's Ninth Art, the bande dessinée has a status far surpassing that of the equivalent English-language comic strip. This publication, one of the first predominantly in English on the subject, provides a thorough introduction to questions of BD history, context and bibliography. Theoretical issues - including the reception of the early proto-BD prior to its modern definition, approaches to the construction of a BD (presented here in BD form by leading artist Tanitoc), semiology and the reading of the current form, or the specificity of the French/US (non)overlap - complement historical approaches, such as Bécassine read in the light of postcolonialism, Le Corbusier and BD techniques in architecture, post-war BD and nostalgia for the Resistance, or Pilote and the 1960s revolution. And whilst broaching issues such as feminism or masculinity, social class, AIDS, exoticism or futurism, the volume presents chapters on some of the cutting-edge artists in the field today: Baru, Moebius, Juillard, Binet, Bilal… This book supplies an introduction to the BD that will be of use to students and researchers at all levels. In addition, the format of the individual case studies provides in-depth analysis allowing the reader to grasp specific examples in terms both of their place vis-a-vis the evolution of the BD and, more generally, of the wider role they play within French and Francophone cultural studies. Intro -- The Francophone Bande Dessinée -- The Francophone Bande Dessinée: An Introduction -- Exoticising the Domestique: Bécassine, Brittany and the Beauty of the Dead -- BD Theory Before the Term 'BD' Existed -- De nouvelles formes naissent: Le Corbusier and the bande dessinée -- Le Grêlé 7/13: A (Communist) Children's Guide to the Resistance -- Pilote: Pedagogy, Puberty and Parents -- Jean Giraud / Moebius: Nouveau Réalisme and Science Fiction -- Figuration and configuration: mapping imaginary worlds in BD -- Narratives of Adolescence, Ethnicity and Masculinity in the Work of Baru -- Femmes en Images et Images de Femmes: L'Héroïne de La Femme Piège d'Enki Bilal -- Les Bidochon assujettis académiques -- Some Observations on BD in the US -- 'The Dance of the Visible and the Invisible': AIDS and the Bande Dessinée -- Let's party! Astérix and the World Cup (France 1998) -- List of Illustrations.
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