Sino-French Graphic Novels: Identity, Interculturality and Multimodality

The graphic novel, alongside comics and digital content, has become especially popular amongst today’s Sino-French creators. This current generation combines different media in ways that demonstrate a progression from the verbal and visual techniques of their predecessors, while still promoting intercultural understanding and dialogue. Crucially, these Sino-French graphic novelists are working to expose and challenge the systemic racism of institutions and individual instances of discrimination far more overtly than previous generations of immigrants, who tended to embody and accept the myth of the Chinese as a model minority. To better understand the interactions between sign systems and the intercultural context in which these creators’ experiences are situated, this project analyses five semiotic modes (i.e. the systems creating meaning) – linguistic, visual, audio, gestural and spatial – in the portrayal of identity in seven autobiographical and autofictional graphic novels, published in French between 2011 and 2023 by female, Sinophone writers/illustrators. ‘Sino(phone)’ is used here, as elsewhere in the field, to refer beyond a particular political entity to a broad geographical and cultural sphere, encompassing not only continental China but also Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Twenty-first century communication has been greatly impacted by visual images and the relationship between multiple meaning-making systems in print and digital media. At the same time, globalization has increased the encounters between people from different geographical regions and cultural backgrounds. Consequently, it has become increasingly important to understand and analyse the representation of meaning within and across both modes and cultures. Kress uses ‘multimodality’ (2000, Multimodality: Challenges to Thinking about Language, p.153) to acknowledge the fact that ‘language is no longer the only or even the central semiotic mode’ and he emphasizes the interplay between different representational and communicative modes, for instance between images and spoken/written words. This focus informs the three key research questions structuring the study. Firstly, how can a multimodal approach help us to understand the role that modes play in communicating complex issues relating to identity in Sino-French graphic novels? Secondly, what challenges relating to representation and knowledge are faced by Sino-French graphic novelists? Thirdly, in what ways do these works contribute to intercultural understanding and inclusivity? Recognising that graphic novels are adept at conveying difficult subject matter, personal experiences and social criticism, our project will analyse the relationships between modes that reveal racism, prejudice, stereotyping, language difficulties, financial hardship and non-belonging. It will explore how authors negotiate the conflict between writing in a dominant Western language and country while identifying strongly with a Sinophone culture, its history, traditions and mores. It also interrogates the possibility of cultural specificity within global comic studies. The ability of intercultural graphic forms to attract young audiences has led to studies examining the inclusion of graphic novels in primary and secondary school curricula to teach multiliteracy skills and develop awareness of other cultures. In this vein, the project investigates how graphic novels invite readers of all ages to stand with characters, thus assuming a position responsive to injustices, which helps to bridge fictional-real world divisions.