postcolonialism and migration in french comics
mark mckinney
Postcolonialism and migration are major themes in contemporary French comics and have roots in the Algerian War (1954–62), anti-racist struggle, and mass migration to France. This volume studies comics from the formal dismantling of the French colonial empire in 1962 up to the present. French cartoonists of ethnic minority and immigrant heritage are a major focus, including Zeina Abirached (Lebanon), Yvan Alagbé (Benin), Baru (Italy), Enki Bilal (former Yugoslavia), Farid Boudjellal (Algeria and Armenia), José Jover (Spain), Larbi Mechkour (Algeria), and Roland Monpierre (Guadeloupe). The author analyses comics representing a gamut of perspectives on immigration and postcolonial ethnic minorities, ranging from staunch defense to violent rejection. Individual chapters are dedicated to specific artists, artistic collectives, comics, or themes, including an anti-racist comic strip serialised in Charlie Hebdo, undocumented migrants in comics, and racism in far-right comics.

Postcolonialism and migration are major themes in contemporary French comics and have roots in the Algerian War (1954–62), antiracist struggle, and mass migration to France. This volume studies comics from the end of the formal dismantling of French colonial empire in 1962 up to the present. French cartoonists of ethnic-minority and immigrant heritage are a major focus, including Zeina Abirached (Lebanon), Yvan Alagbé (Benin), Baru (Italy), Enki Bilal (former Yugoslavia), Farid Boudjellal (Algeria and Armenia), José Jover (Spain), Larbi Mechkour (Algeria), and Roland Monpierre (Guadeloupe). The author analyzes comics representing a gamut of perspectives on immigration and postcolonial ethnic minorities, ranging from staunch defense to violent rejection. Individual chapters are dedicated to specific artists, artistic collectives, comics, or themes, including avant-gardism, undocumented migrants in comics, and racism in far-right comics.

Mark McKinney is Professor of French at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, USA. He has written The Colonial Heritage of French Comics (Liverpool University Press, 2011) and Redrawing French Empire in Comics (Ohio State University Press, 2013). He coedited Post-Colonial Cultures in France (Routledge, 1997) with Alec G. Hargreaves. He edited History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels (University Press of Mississippi, 2008). He cofounded and coedited the journal European Comic Art with Laurence Grove and Ann Miller.

Profound analysis of French comics through a postcolonial lens