TextImage Mosaics in French Culture by Grove Laurance;

Author:Grove, Laurance;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

PART IV

THEMATICS

Thematics

The themes presented in any artistic form of expression might be arranged into two categories: those which are specific to time and/or place and those one might class as ‘eternal.’ Typically, examples of the former include references to political events, current fashions or changes in society; ‘eternal’ subjects embrace the afterlife, love or the pursuit of abstract notions such as happiness and justice. In this respect neither the emblem nor the bande dessinée differs from other forms of expression.

Nor do they differ from other forms in that our two categories can easily become blurred. Virgil tells of the pains of forbidden love in his account of Aeneas and Dido’s tragic encounter whereby the former’s departure leads to the latter’s suicide. A grandiose version of a situation to be retold, with various variations, from Romeo and Juliet to West Side Story. Nonetheless, beyond the eternal façade Virgil’s poetry has a very time-specific agenda: Aeneas left to fulfil his destiny, the founding of the Roman race leading to its zenith under Augustus, Virgil’s patron. Can this be compared to an episode of Friends whose theme might be the borders between love and friendship as presented in the Manhattan lifestyle of the principal characters, but which, by its exploration of such issues, upholds the American way of life and all that it implies?

We should be aware, therefore, that any theme can be manipulated. Gulliver’s Travels is not really about the exoticism of far-off lands, Alice in Wonderland presents far more than the dreamy fantasies of a young girl, The Great Dictator is not about a hypothetical figure of slapstick ridicule. Is there always an ‘agenda’? Is the superficial theme never really the true theme? Is it going too far to suggest that Georges Feydeau’s farces are a pre-Marxist indictment of the corruption of Bourgeois society or Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is a thin veil for anti-feminist Fascism?

As is often the case, a middle path is doubtless most sensible. We should nonetheless be aware that themes presented can often be no more than the casing for extended metaphor and that regardless of authorial intention any work mirrors the values of its time and place. The aim of this chapter is to examine the themes of the emblem and the bande dessinée with this in mind.

Initially this chapter will attempt to provide a glimpse of the plethora of themes broached by the two forms. In the case of the disparate collections of the early sixteenth century, what type of preoccupations shine through? Here, the answer need take account not only of the subject of the image, but also the motto, and any extra elements that the ensuing texts provide. And, as stated, the theme can operate on many levels: an emblem about the mythical figure of Narcisssus embraces the topic of egocentricity and a statue on a high place is really about ambition. The closeness of the emblem to the metaphorical commonplace means no theme is ever self-contained.

To what extent is this also true of

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