Literature Program and French Studies Program Present

The Film Photonovel: A Forgotten Medium

The 1950s are not only the golden age of the classic European photonovel (a kind of romance comics with photographs), they also saw the emergence of a short-lived subgenre, the film photonovel, which “transmedializes” real movies in photonovel format. This astonishing mix used to be extremely popular in the late 1950s, before rapidly disappearing in the 1960s. In this lecture, Jan Baetens will sketch the commercial and editorial logic of this fascinating “cultural form” and address a specific example, the adaptation of Louis Malle’s Ascenseur pour l’échafaud.

Jan Baetens is professor of literary theory and cultural studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). He is the author of the forthcoming The Film Photonovel: A Cultural History of Forgotten Adaptations (Texas University Press, 2019) and, most recently, of Novelization: From Film to Novel (Ohio State University Press, 2018), À voix haute (Les Impressions Nouvelles, 2016), The Graphic Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2014, with H. Frey), and Pour en finir avec la poésie dite minimaliste (Les Impressions Nouvelles, 2014). Baetens coedited the Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel (2018). He is also a prolific poet (Cent fois sur le métier, 2004; Vivre sa vie, 2005; Autres nuages, 2012, Ce monde, 2015; La lecture, 2017—among many other titles) and a novelist (Faire sécession, 2017).

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For more information, call 845-758-7121, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4

Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102

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