Un autre monde
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Un autre monde (Another world)[1] is an illustrated book by French illustrator Grandville, first published in 1844 by H. Fournier.
The book is subtitled Transformations, visions, incarnations, ascensions, locomotions, explorations, pérégrinations, excursions, stations, cosmogonies, fantasmagories, rêveries, folâtreries, facéties, lubies, métamorphoses, zoomorphoses, lithomorphoses, métempsycoses, apothéoses et autres choses.
The book features 34 chapters and more than 180 enigmatic illustrations with puzzling captions. It was published in 1843 in 36 weekly installments and the following year in book form.
Contents |
Plot
- Un Autre Monde describes and depicts a parallel world created by three sleazy demiurges named Dr. Krackq, Dr. Puff and Dr. Hahblle. Each also travels within the world, describing its people and their customs. Obviously, the "other" world is a thinly-veiled parody of our own.[2]
Grandville sends the three demiurges on excursions through space and time during which time they make the most incredible observations. In the last chapter, the three meet again on earth, deliver a scathing review of the existing world and build a steam-powered Noah's Ark to colonize a new world.
Legacy
Sir John Tenniel and many cartoonists from Punch borrowed very heavily from his imagery.
The fantastic metamorphoses of plants, animals and humans caused him to be revindicated as a surrealist avant la lettre by Breton.
Surrealist artist Max Ernst produced a frontispiece for a 1963 fascimile edition of Un autre monde entitled Hommage à Granville (subtitled A New World is Born - Praised be Grandville!).
Interpretation
Charles Baudelaire, who thought little of the art of Grandville, wrote on him in 1857: "This man, with superhuman courage, has spent his life rebuilding creation. He took it in his hands, turned it around, twisted it, rearranged it, commented upon it and explained it, thus turning nature into an Apocalypse" (see Baudelaire on Grandville in Quelques caricaturistes français).
The philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) in Arcades Project, his study of early capitalism and especially the development commodity fetishism saw in Grandville's drawings, especially in Another World, a glorification of this development: "Die Inthronisierung der Ware und der sie umgebende Glanz der Zerstreuung ist das geheime Thema von Grandvilles Kunst“. He also wrote "Wenn die Ware aber ein Fetisch ist, so ist Grandville ihr Zauberpriester".
The Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch denoted Grandville as a "schizophrenic petty bourgeois" whose ridicule had produced only "utopian nonsense."
Chapters
Chapters include:
La clé des champs. Apothéose du docteur Puff. L'Univers au Scrutin. Concert à la vapeur. La rhubarbe et le séné. LA TERRE EN PLAN. A vol et à vue d'oiseau. Le Carnaval en bouteille. Caractères travestis et travestissements de caractère. Déguisements physiologiques. Le Royaume des marionnettes. UNE RÉVOLUTION VÉGÉTALE. UN VOYAGE D'AVRIL. LE LOUVRE DES MARIONNETTES. UNE ÉCLIPSE CONJUGALE. LES AMOURS D'UN PANTIN ET D'UNE ÉTOILE. UNE APRÈS-MIDI AU JARDIN DES PLANTES. LA MORT D'UNE IMMORTELLE. Les mystères de l'infini.
Selected list of plates
- Combat de deux raffinés[3]
- Interplanetary Bridge[4]
- La fosse aux doublivores[5]
- Plusieurs dilettanti ont les oreilles dechirees[6]
- Apocalypse du ballet [7]
- Vénus a l'opera
- Plantes marines, coquillages, madrépores[8]
See also
