La réinvention de l’imaginaire héroïque dans la bande dessinée d’aventure

Abstract

This paper aims at describing the specific contribution of Franco Belgian bande dessinée (BD) to the modern redefinition of the heroic imaginary by reshaping adventure and its subject, the hero. It focuses on the articulation of two major features of the new paradigm Hergé has created: the unprecedented disjonction between adventure and ordinary life (time, family) and the organization of the hero into two characters (the main character and the sidekick). We examine the variations of the tintinesque paradigm in the historical Spirou as well as in the contemporary Spirou, in order to grasp how the autonomy of the adventure and of the main character has been shaken by the intrusion of time and domestic life brought about by the elucidation of the indetermined regions of Spirou’s fictionnal world.