Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow

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...

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Main Author: David Platten
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Dalhousie University 2017-11-01
Series:Belphégor
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/belphegor/1005
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author David Platten
author_facet David Platten
author_sort David Platten
collection DOAJ
description 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.
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spelling doaj-art-cc8b06f072c644a7823883a1eb05eaa22025-08-20T02:20:18ZdeuDalhousie UniversityBelphégor1499-71852017-11-0115210.4000/belphegor.1005Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural MiddlebrowDavid PlattenThis 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.https://journals.openedition.org/belphegor/1005comicsreferentialityPersepolisaniconismcaricatureSattouf
spellingShingle David Platten
Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow
Belphégor
comics
referentiality
Persepolis
aniconism
caricature
Sattouf
title Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow
title_full Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow
title_fullStr Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow
title_full_unstemmed Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow
title_short Windows of Cognition : Contemporary French Comics and the Cultural Middlebrow
title_sort windows of cognition contemporary french comics and the cultural middlebrow
topic comics
referentiality
Persepolis
aniconism
caricature
Sattouf
url https://journals.openedition.org/belphegor/1005
work_keys_str_mv AT davidplatten windowsofcognitioncontemporaryfrenchcomicsandtheculturalmiddlebrow