Panels of Protest

In “Elise and the New Partisans,” a graphic novel set to be published in English for the first time this month, Jacques Tardi’s cartoonlike characters—depicted in realistic, harshly lit, black-and-white Parisian street settings—come to life as he draws on memories of the early activism of his longtime partner, the French singer Dominique Grange. The book follows a character named Elise, a stand-in for Grange, during her political awakening in a high-school philosophy class and her subsequent involvement in the civil unrest of the nineteen-sixties, before and after the protests that took place across France in May of 1968. Elise’s story feels relevant and timely—a gesture toward the resurgence of unionization efforts taking place today.

Tardi has been a star in France for decades; his style is so recognizable that he’s typically known by only his last name. Throughout the graphic novel, Tardi weaves political events—the French government’s brutal response to the war of liberation in Algeria, the student and worker uprisings—in with reflections on Grange’s youth. Elise is center stage as she evolves from an earnest student to a hopeful pop musician, then abandons her budding career and becomes a factory worker and an activist. The result is a multifaceted portrait of a person, and of an era. In the excerpt below, Elise reminisces about her times during the May, 1968, protests.

—Françoise Mouly and Genevieve Bormes

This is drawn from “Elise and the New Partisans.”