The Sun, The Idea & Story Without Words by Frans Masereel & David Beronä

Author:Frans Masereel & David Beronä [Masereel, Frans]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780486138282
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

The Sun

The Sun, first published as Le soleil in Geneva by Editions du Sablier in 1919, and a year later by Kurt Wolff, tells the story in 63 woodcuts of a man’s determination to reach the sun. Masereel uses the myth of Icarus within a modern, early-twentieth-century setting. In this process, he displayed the universality of the indomitable quest of the human spirit. What was unique with this novel, as well as The Idea, was the exclusive appearance of Masereel in each of the narratives. This represents an early example of “autofiction,” a genre wherein either a fictitious event is used to illuminate an artist’s life, or, as in this case, the artist becomes an essential part of the drama or work. The contemporary graphic novels Maus: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman and Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi are celebrated examples of this narrative device.

In the introductory pages, Frans Masereel sits at his desk, staring absently at the sun before he lays his head down to sleep. A male figure steps out of his head and begins an obsessive journey to reach the sun. Despite the many diversions, the young man finally runs up a ladder of clouds and is scorched by the sun. He descends, burning, and falls on Masereel’s desk. Masereel looks at the reader and taps his head as if to say, “Wasn’t that a crazy daydream?” The insertion of Masereel as a character in this allegory not only allows readers to identify with their own “crazy daydreams,” but also to reassess the various themes in The Sun. For example: Just how crazy is this young man’s attempt to reach the sun in comparison to the atrocities of the recent world war or to the conformity of the industrial masses that restrains and diverts the young man’s purpose in life? Ironically, the graphic novelist Lynd Ward discovered a copy of The Sun in 1926 while in Leipzig at the National Academy for Graphic Arts. This discovery provided the ideal avenue for Ward to reach his own “sun,” resulting in the creation of six woodcut novels and a lifetime of book illustration.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.