Sfar So Far: Identity, History, Fantasy, and Mimesis in Joann Sfar’s Graphic Novels by Fabrice Leroy

Abstract

Reviews 247 beyond ars ertotica, Jordan argues that Foucault’s interest in such oeuvres as the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius and the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola suggest a working through the body to develop an ars vivendi (or style de vie in the fullest sense). Jordan’s readings of Foucault give fresh perspectives on how the body enters discourse’s grip and its subversive possibilities that have been forgotten or co-opted. Foucault’s highly performative and self-reflexive approach to power, in which he never seeks to define a term, but rather to reenact and draw attention again and again to its functioning, will frustrate those searching for a definitive discourse for oppositional identity. But as Jordan reminds us, “for Foucault the most arduous writing recalls scenes of bodily resistance at the edge of language”(199). Scholars of gender, sexuality, as well as those interested in fresh readings of the transgressive possibilities of French literature, will find that struggling with language, in Foucault’s prose and Jordan’s readings, is well worth the effort. Stetson University (FL) Robert J. Watson Leroy, Fabrice. Sfar So Far: Identity, History, Fantasy, and Mimesis in Joann Sfar’s Graphic Novels. Leuven: Leuven UP, 2014. ISBN 978-94-6270-006-2. Pp. 303. 59 a. Born in 1971 in Nice, Sfar has rapidly become one of the best-known graphic artists in France. His impressive list of bandes dessinées albums includes the Chat du rabbin (2002–06) and Klezmer (2006–14) series. He has also directed two films so far: Gainsbourg, vie héroïque (2010) and an animated version of Le chat du rabbin (2011). Leroy’s equally-impressive critical study concentrates on close readings of a large crosssection of Sfar’s published works. Some biographical elements, particularly Sfar’s dual Ashkenazi and Sephardic family background, are addressed when they are relevant to the analyses of his bandes dessinées. By contrast, Sfar’s career path, or his nonlinear trajectory within the French BD publishing industry (Delcourt,L’Association,Dargaud), receives comparatively little attention. In a manner reminiscent of the auteuriste approach in film criticism, Leroy seeks to “recognize and examine the persistence of centripetal themes and diegetic strategies—a network of narrative patterns and graphic devices whose recurrence allows the reader to identify the singularity of Sfar’s vision and artistic approach”(14). Sfar’s drawing style, often described as playful, whimsical, and idiosyncratic, does not fit in with the careful precision of the established ligne claire aesthetic that long dominated French (and Belgian) bandes dessinées. However, “the overwhelming dimensions of Sfar’s historically-themed production” (80) puts him squarely within the longstanding tradition of the wide-ranging use of historical representation within graphic novels published in France. As Leroy details, recurring thematic patterns in Sfar’s albums include “the auto-ethnographic exploration of family history, the symbolic (re-)imaging of repressed trauma, and the carnivalesque parody of sociopolitical oppression of epistemological delusions” (121). The most pervasive thematic element seems to be how Sfar investigates the two sides of his Jewish family history in order to confront“persecution and the temptation of counterviolence ” within his work (224). A few minor mistakes are found in this book: the mentions of Galicia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire refer to the geopolitical situation in Europe before World War One, not World War Two (83). Overall, however, Sfar So Far is refreshingly free of typographical errors. Leroy’s interview of Sfar (in English) concludes this volume, which contains an appropriate number of illustrations , including several in color. Leroy has produced a consistently insightful work that is well-written and thoroughly documented, and that will be of interest to all scholars and readers of French bandes dessinées. Western Washington University Edward Ousselin McClive, Cathy. Menstruation and Procreation in Early Modern France. Surrey: Ashgate, 2015. ISBN 978-0-7546-6603-5. Pp. 267. £70. Drawing from hundreds of medical, judicial, and theological documents from the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, as well as personal correspondences by women to their families and medical practitioners, McClive examines the broad-ranging complexity of the phenomenon of menstruation in early modern France. She argues that the prevalent contemporary...