French-Language Comics (La bande dessinée)

The guide for French-Language Comic (La Bande Dessinée) will help you familiarize with search strategies, the research process, and some writing tips to prepare your research assignments.

You may find sources on the Internet or in the library's catalog. No matter where you look, always evaluate a source.

Currency: 

• Is the information published in the right time for your needs?
  • Some topics required current content.
  • Some topics are historical making it appropriate to cite older works.

Reliability:

• Is the information based on fact or opinion?
• Are the claims supported by facts and trustable data?
• Is the information well-balanced, objective, and non-biased? 
• Does the author attribute sources?

Authority:

• Who is the author?
• What is the affiliation of the author?
• What are the credentials?
• What publishing house supports the publication?

Accuracy:

• Is the article/book peer-reviewed?
• Do you see grammatical errors?
• Does it look legitimate?
• Does the author provides contact information?

Purpose: 

• What is the intent of the work?
• What is the domain of a website?
• Who is the target audience?

OneSearch is a discovery search platform where you can find articles, books, book chapters, films, and other materials in print and digital format. The dashboard has several features to help you create folders (Projects) to organize your assignments, save materials to your folders and view your older searches.

Navigating OneSearch

1. Ensure you are signed into the system by clicking MyEBSCO and entering your credentials.

2. Since you will be writing an essay or a research paper, you can use the built-in feature Projects (listed in My Dashboard) to keep track of the sources you have found.

3. If there are many hits (results), click on All Filters to limit your search. You can limit your search by peer-reviewed, language, type of source (ebook, article, magazine), publisher, etc.

4. Click on Supplemental Sources at the bottom of the dashboard to extend your search to Google Scholar or access interlibrary loan when you need material we do not have.

When materials are unavailable in the Library Catalog, Prospector or MOBIUS, it is time to request the item through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). 

Placing requests

1. You must make an account first if you have never requested an item through ILL. Click on the tab Login to ILLIAD to start and enter your Identikey username and password. It is better to use the first and last name that is associated with your Identikey when signing up. since loans will be delivered to you under that name.
2. Fill in the form with as much information about the item you need.
3. If you need multiple chapters within the same book or articles from the same journal, click on Clone Request, select the transaction number you want to clone, make the appropriate edits, and click submit.
4. You can request books, DVDs, CDs, dissertations, microform and other materials from lenders around the world.
5. The cost of borrowing materials, including shipping, is paid for by the Library.

Your topic should facilitate a critical approach that integrates some of the theories covered in your course.

Your research topic may be born through different channels:

• Read your syllabus carefully and pay attention to a topic covered in class that interests you but that you know little about.
  • You may choose a topic related to the course's central theme that interests you.
• Expand on a subject you found important, and that was highlighted in one of the texts you read.
• Cover a topic (from your optic) suggested in one of the books or articles you read.
• Browse online media to gather topic ideas.
• Browse background sources to gather topic ideas.

Arriving at a topic that is not too big or too small is one of the earliest challenges in the research process.

Example:

1. French-language market ⇒ too big
2. French-language book market ⇒ We added the type of market, but this topic is still too big
3. The bande dessinée in the French-language book market ⇒ We have added a literary genre
4. Representations of the bandes dessinées as a "ninth art ⇒ We have shifted into ninth art 

We have arrived at a topic:

The bande dessinée, as an expression of "ninth art" as a sociological phenomenon

Your research question will be related to your topic. This question usually answers a matter not covered by previous scholarship.

Developing Research Questions: Your Purpose

Please take a look at where your questions will lead you. Will your question lead you to:

• Compare and contrast
  • Example: How do quotes from Tintin, Astérix, and Lucky Luke represent idiomatic phrases in the French language?
    • How is a theme presented in an article or book you read differently from the optic considered in a text covered in class?
    • How is author X's contribution different from author Y's?
    • How do different authors cover the same topic?
• Associate your topic with another
  • Example: How does la bande dessinée intersect with the culture of contemporary France? 
    • How did a topic happen about another topic?

• Interpret the state of your topic
  • Explain the significance of X and how you can measure this significance
    • Example: What is the significance of the visual-textual nature of la bande dessinée as a language learning tool? 

• Connect a text with a historical problem
  • Example: How does Tintin work against Imperial Japan and European dictatorships?
  • Tintin, as an iconic fighter against slavery 

• Argue for a particular stance
  • Example: No, Tintin is not racist. A counterargument against Tintin's colonialist treatment of the local population
  • Present opposing views and argue in favor or against a view

Background sources are beneficial at the beginning stages of your research process. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and even Wikipedia are traditional background sources that we usually do not cite in our final project. These sources will give us ideas for research topics, keywords and even provide further information that may be useful.

Le Neuvième Art or 9ème (Art Ninth Art) ⇒ France and Belgium 

"la bande dessinée Franco-Belge"

Francophone Belgium ⇒ comics industry ⇒ since the 1940s

Tintin by Belgian George Remi (Hergé) ⇒ created in 1929 

Les Schtroumpfs (The Smurfs) by Pierre Culliford (Peyo) ⇒ created in 1958

Comic artists:

•  Hergé
•  Peyo
• Morris (Maurice De Bevere)

• "Tintin in the Congo" AND racist stereotypes
• Festival Internationale de la Bande Dessinée d'Angoulême Angoulême, France 
• CNBDI in Angoulême AND Ninth art
• National Museum bandes dessinées AND Ninth Art
• Ninth Art AND system of communication and expression
• Astérix AND pop culture
• bandes dessinées AND economic phenomenon OR phénomène économique
• bandes dessinées AND idiomatic phrases AND France
•  Representation AND Iznogoud AND citation
• Representation AND Tintin AND references
• Representation AND Lucy Luke AND pastiche

When you find a book or article of interest in the Library catalog, you may look at its bibliographic record and subject terms. The Library of Congress creates subject terms, usually linked to additional resources on the topic. When you use subject terms in your searches, you expand your search.

Example: Subject Headings Related to bande dessinée 

• Comic books, strips, etc. -- History and criticism
• Comic books, strips, etc
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Comic books, strips, etc. -- France -- History and criticism
• Example: I use the subject heading DE "Criticism, interpretation, etc" and I connected to the search phrase bande dessinée 
  • DE "Criticism, interpretation, etc" AND bande dessinée 

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources you have read about your topic and are considering for your research project. Each entry or annotation is built as a block paragraph of about 7-10 lines of text (the size of your annotation can vary). Each entry should have a citation at the top of the annotation, a summary, and your critical evaluation. This evaluation is crucial to help you decide how important the book or chapter is for your topic. Annotated bibliographies also help other readers assess titles for their projects.

Elements of an Annotated Bibliography

1. Provide a complete citation using a citation format of your choice. MLA is a standard citation format in the humanities.

2. Provide a summary reflecting what the item is about.

• Main idea and scope
• Brief description of the content

3. The next part of the annotation is your assessment.

• A sentence evaluating the authority of the author
• Any bias found in the work
• Value it brings to your research

The example above includes the following assessment:

"...the manual is an excellent source for students new to philosophy. Like other books in this area, the manual contains sections of grammar, writing strategies, introductory logic, and the different types of writing encountered in various areas of philosophy..."

Notice that the annotation in this example is comparing the book to other books in the area.

4. The last part of the annotation is a closing statement referring to the work's value to the research. The example above includes the following closing statement:

"Of particular note, however, is the section on conducting research philosophy. The research strategies and sources of information described there are very much up-to-date..."

Writing Methods

There are three main effective ways to use the work of others in your writing:  

Summarizing

Brief presentation, in your own words, of another author's main points as related to your writing.

Useful practice when:

You need only short passages or sentences to convey the meaning

You wish to draw your readers’ attention to particular points, conclusions or observations

Paraphrasing

Your interpretation of another author's words or ideas, usually shorter passages or paragraphs.

Useful practice when:

Meaning is more important than exact phrasing

Ideas or resources are more important than exact wording

Simplifying concepts will help your reader

Images & sounds

Quoting 

Your use of an author's exact words, terms, or phrases in direct quotes. 

Useful practice when:

Author’s words are very effective or significant

Author is a recognized authority

Exactness, accuracy, or conciseness matter

You are pointing to or analyzing the original text

Tip: Summarizing is also a good note taking strategy and allows you to test your understanding. The more deeply you understand a topic, the better you will be at paraphrasing and quoting.

Read actively! Take notes and make annotations. Learn more about when to paraphrase and when to quote.

Books

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Lippincott, 1960.

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

 Learn more:  Citing Books

Articles

Llanera, Tracy. "Rethinking Nihilism: Rorty Vs. Taylor, Dreyfus and Kelly." Philosophy & Social Criticism, vol. 42, no. 9, 2016, pp. 937-950.

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.

Lukainoff, Greg and Jonathan Haidt. "The Coddling of the American Mind." The Atlantic, 1 Sept. 2015, pp. 42-52.

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.

 Learn more:  Citing Periodicals

Web

University Libraries: University of Colorado, Boulder. University of Colorado Boulder, www.libraries.colorado.edu. Access 1 Jul. 2024.

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).

 Learn more:  Citing Electronic Sources

* Note: in works cited pages, the second and subsequent lines of citations are indented by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent. Learn more about formatting.