Invisible Presence

Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking study of French-language comic strips, Catriona MacLeod looks at the representation of women across three distinct categories: as main characters and as secondary figures created by male artists, and as characters created by women artists. Drawing from feminist scholarship, especially well-known film and literary theorists, the book asks what it means to draw and depict women from within a phallocentric, male-dominated paradigm as well as how the particular medium of bande dessinée (the French-language graphic novel) has shaped dominant representations of women. MacLeod's exploration focuses on the representation of female characters in French comics across genres, artistic styles, and time periods. Until now, these characters and their creators have received relatively little scholarly attention, or have only been considered individually, rather than within wider patterns of female representation; this book aims to correct that.