''The Idea'' (, "Idea, her birth, her life, her death") is a 1920

wordless novel The wordless novel is a narrative genre that uses sequences of captionless pictures to tell a story. As artists have often made such books using woodcut and other relief printing techniques, the terms woodcut novel or novel in woodcuts are a ...

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

artist

Frans Masereel Frans Masereel (31 July 1889 – 3 January 1972) was a Belgium, Belgian painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France. He is known especially for his woodcuts which focused on political and social issues, such as war and capitalism. He ...

(1889–1972). In eighty-three

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

prints, the book tells an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

of a man's idea, which takes the form of a naked woman who goes out into the world; the authorities try to suppress her nakedness, and execute a man who stands up for her. Her image is spread through the mass media, inciting a disruption of the social order. Filmmaker

Berthold Bartosch Berthold Bartosch (29 December 1893 – 13 November 1968) was a film-maker, born in Polaun, in the Bohemia region of Austria-Hungary (now part of the Czech Republic). Work with Lotte Reiniger He moved to Berlin in 1920 and collaborated with Lot ...

made an animated adaptation in 1932.

Overview

An artist is struck with an idea, which manifests itself as a naked woman with long, black hair. He displays her to the public, but the authorities, offended by her nudity, chase her around the city in order to cover up her body. A man who is not offended by her nudity takes to the woman's side, and the two fight injustice together; the man is caught and executed. The authorities destroy all books published with the woman's image, but she finds new outlets in the mass media, and succeeds in disrupting the social order. The woman returns to the artist, who has a new idea—a white-haired woman. He frames and hangs the black-haired woman on the wall, and releases the white-haired woman to the public. The allegorical book is open to interpretation. It can be seen as representing new ideas, and how they disrupt and are resisted by tradition. From the perspective of the woman, it can be seen as how the image of women is manipulated by society and the media, or how society is threatened by women who express themselves freely.

Publication history

The book first appeared as in 1920 from French publisher under the title ''Idée, sa naissance, sa vie, sa mort: 83 images, dessinées et gravées sur bois'' ("Idea, her birth, her life, her death: 83 pictures, drawn and engraved on wood"). It was printed from 83

s of each. Of the 878 copies made, the first 28 were signed and hand-numbered and printed on Japon imperial paper, one in a serious number 1–25 and another A–C. A further 50 printed on Hollande van Gelder paper were unsigned but hand-number in Roman numerals from I to L. The unsigned rest of the run was on volumineux anglais paper. German publisher Kurt Wolff released a popular edition in 1924 under the German title ''Die Idee: 83 Holzschitte''. An introduction by writer

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss poet and novelist, and the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophic ...

prefaced the second edition in 1927. An English edition didn't appear until London publisher Redstone Press released it in 1986 in a paired edition with '' Story Without Words'' (1920), entitled ''The Idea and Story Without Words: Two Novels Told in Woodcuts''.

Legacy

American artist

Lynd Ward Lynd Kendall Ward (June 26, 1905 – June 28, 1985) was an American artist and novelist, known for his series of wordless novels using wood engraving, and his illustrations for juvenile and adult books. His wordless novels have influenced ...

used the concept of an idea surviving oppression in his wordless novel ''

Madman's Drum ''Madman's Drum'' is a wordless novel by American artist Lynd Ward (1905–1985), published in 1930. It is the second of Ward's six wordless novels. The 118 wood engraving, wood-engraved images of ''Madman's Drum'' tell the story of a slave ...

'' (1930).

Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

filmmaker

spent two years on an animated film adaptation of ''The Idea'' in 1932; initially Masereel agreed to a collaboration in 1930, but backed out of the production. Bartosch's version has the idea defeated in the end. He tries to create a three-dimensional feeling through the use of multiple levels of animation

cel A cel, short for '' celluloid'', is a transparent sheet on which objects are drawn or painted for traditional, hand-drawn animation. Actual celluloid (consisting of cellulose nitrate and camphor) was used during the first half of the 20th cent ...

s. Film historian

William Moritz William Moritz (May 6, 1941 – March 12, 2004) was an American film historian who specialized in visual music and experimental animation. His principal published works concerned abstract filmmaker and painter Oskar Fischinger. He also wrote exte ...

called it "the first animated film created as an artwork with serious, even tragic, social and philosophical themes". Historian Perry Willett wrote that the film is at times unclear, and was "something of a disappointment".

References

Works cited

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Idea 1920 fantasy novels 1920 comics debuts Belgian graphic novels Drama comics Fantasy comics Pantomime comics Allegory Belgian novels adapted into films Belgian comics adapted into films Woodcut novels by Frans Masereel