Framing the immigration discourse and drawing the citizen: Concrete representations of the “migration crisis” in comics journalism

Abstract

This chapter discusses the effects the inaccurate term 'illegal' or 'clandestine' immigration has on the public response to migration at large. Taking as example two French graphic novels typical of the 'comics journalism' (Dabitch et al., Immigrants. Paris: Futuropolis, 2010) genre, Droit du sol by Charles Masson and Clandestino by Aurel, the chapter focuses on the ways in which these works' intermediality quality allows them to contest assumptions and common discourses around illegality. Moreover, Pruteanu analyses the importance of the image of the author as both reporter and witness of the facts, linking Masson and Aurel's works to the biofictional genre which Rosalia Baena calls 'life writings' (Transculturing Auto/Biography: Forms of Life Writing. London: Routledge, 2014).