The Practice of Multimodal Storytelling: Camus’s “L’hôte” as Bande dessinée

Albert Camus and Jacques Ferrandez are perhaps the most well-known piednoir authors/artists associated with the Algerian war. However, their chosen media have distinct narrative structures that result in different yet viable modes of representation. This article proposes a comparative analysis of Camus’s novella “L’hôte” and Ferrandez’s bande dessinée adaptation to highlight their specific narrative strategies. Analysis focuses on the differences between visual and verbal narratology, and the representational implications of trans-generic adaptations. Ferrandez’s album allows readers to reevaluate Camus’s prose during a period of national inquiry into colonization and decolonization while exploring the possibilities of multimodal narration.