Bédéphiles et fans : un amour structurant

Abstract

Bedephilia is conceived and defined in several ways. The word may refer to a variety of practices associated with the reading of comics, suggesting a proximity between bedephiles and fans, or as a set of legitimizing discourse about the medium. This introduction first examines the way bedephiles and fans differ in contemporay French usages, by studying the various assumptions encapsulated in each term, and noting that the actual practices of bedephiles and fans are often very similar. The text then provides an overview of the history of bedephilia, paying attention to the way an institutionalized bedephilia has been commemorated and mythified, to the point of overshadowing an amorphous “everyday” bedephilia. The introduction concludes by examining the role bedephilia has played and continues to play in shaping the memory and the history of comics.

Keywords

• bedephilia
• comics fandom
• cultural history
• cultural practices
• golden age
• historiography