Autobiography by association: joining Joann Sfar's Caravan

Pratt, Murray

doi:https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2012.19

Pratt, Murray

Contemporary French Civilization (2012), 37, (2-3), 289–307.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/cfc.2012.19
Language: English
Pages: 19

Abstract

This article considers authorial identity construction in an autobiographical bande dessinée by Joann Sfar, in the context of Lawrence Schehr's argument that representations of postmodern masculinity in France operate with reference to networks of associations that assign meaning and value. In contrast with the Journal of Fabrice Neaud (which Schehr includes in his discussion, as an example of working through concerns about the collective), the authorial persona in Caravan is confident about the many ways he is linked to social values. Yet, through an exploration of Sfar's privileging of tropes of association and connectedness (whether familial, professional, philosophical, political, ethnic, gendered, or sexual), questions arise about the obsessiveness and urgency with which connectivity and similitude are foregrounded in his self-representation.

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