Chapter 20 - Mediterranean Calling: Hunger, Revolt, and Migration in French-Language Graphic Novels

A wide range of materials contribute to a historiography of the ideas and imaginaries that developed around the Mediterranean in the modern era: maps, technical reports, paintings, magazines, films, documentaries, posters and advertising brochures. What is the contribution of the new millennium? The “Ninth Art” is becoming increasingly important in many countries, includ- ing those around the Mediterranean. Several works from the French-speaking world published in the last two decades have the “Middle Sea” and the riparian countries as their setting (or protagonist). Hunger, revolt, and migration seem to unite most of these graphic novels, which take place on the shores of the Mediterranean. Hunger, revolt, and migration will therefore be the common threads running through our discourse, as topoi of a systemic crisis and an im- balance between a “North” and “South” in which the Mediterranean remains the fundamental barycenter.