MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

Young female adventure heroes or superheroes are in short supply in American popular culture but there are even fewer in France. One character among those stands out. The Critical History of French Children’s Literature states “the star of the modern adventure novel for young readers has to be Fantomette.” Fantomette is most easily described as a combination of Nancy Drew and Batgirl. She is a young girl with no superpowers but a supply of gadgets who solves mysteries and stops bad guys. She always slips away and wears a mask and costume when fighting crime and righting wrongs. Her exploits have taken her to exotic locations, under the sea, and even to outer space. Fantomette was created in 1961 by Georges Chaulet who wrote all of the 52 young adult novels in the series; the last published in 2009. Chaulet died in 2012 and no one else has taken up the Fantomette series. There was a live action television show in 1993 and an animated series in 1999/2000. A few of the novels were adapted into comic books. The books and affiliated media are the focus of a published encyclopedia. While reading Fantomette is arguably considered a rite of passage for French girls none of the books have been translated into English, although they have been translated into Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese, Turkish, and Indonesian, and there appears to be no scholarly studies of her in English. While the novels are widely owned by libraries throughout the world only a few American libraries report owning any of them. None appear to have the complete series. To date this important French cultural character, a young girl who single-handedly takes on adult criminals and bests them, has not been introduced to the American audience.