Key French-language theoretical texts on comics translated into English for the first time
'The French Comics Theory Reader' presents a collection of key theoretical
texts on comics, spanning a period from the 1960s to the 2010s, written
in French and never before translated into English. The publication brings
a distinctive set of authors together uniting theoretical scholars, artists,
journalists, and comics critics. Readers will gain access to important debates
that have taken place among major French-language comics scholars,
including Thierry Groensteen, Benoît Peeters, Jan Baetens, and Pierre
Fresnault-Deruelle, over the past fifty years.
The collection covers a broad range of approaches to the medium, including
historical, formal, sociological, philosophical, and psychoanalytic. A
general introduction provides an overall context, and, in addition, each of
the four thematic sections is prefaced by a brief summary of each text and
an explanation of how they have influenced later work.
The translations are faithful to the originals while reading clearly in English,
and, where necessary, cultural references are clarified.