A collage-novel is an interesting way to describe the genre of Ernst’s Une Semaine de Bonté. We discussed this notion in class to some extent on Wednesday. I got the impression that this way of classifying the genre of Une Semaine de Bonté was somewhat controversial, and I certainly understand why. On the one hand, the classification is descriptive and gives the reader a realistic idea of what to expect when he or she opens the book. The book is a series of collages which do indeed create a narrative, much like a novel. I see the merit in calling Une Semaine de Bonté a collage-novel, but I also see the opposing argument that we mentioned in class. We mentioned that many believe that calling Une Semaine de Bonté a collage-novel is somewhat redundant. In a way, I feel as though any novel could be a collage. In class, we defined a collage as “a form of visual art that assembles different forms resulting in a new whole.” A novel may not be as “artistic” as the archetypal collage, but it certainly juxtaposes different forms (pages) in a deliberate way in order to create a new whole (the book and narrative).
Under the assumption that any novel is a collage we can certainly call Une Semaine de Bonté a collage-novel, but couldn’t we call any novel a collage? In this way, I see the argument against this classification from those who deem it redundant. If a novel is a collage and Une Semaine de Bonté is a novel composed of collages, then we could consider Une Semaine de Bonté to be a collage of collages – “collage-ception” if you will. However, I’m still not sure what to think. As I write this post I continue to question the arguments for and against this classification. I do not believe that genre is some inherent quality of Une Semaine de Bonté, however, and for this reason, I believe that we should classify Ernst’s work however we would like. If calling it a collage-novel works, then we should stick with it. I see the value in starting a discourse about the possible redundancy of the classification, but does it really matter if it’s what makes sense. The genre collage-novel gets at the two major components of Ernst’s work – a collection of collages, and a carefully constructed novel-esque narrative.
This is a really interesting interpretation of the definition of “collage.” We’ve discussed quite a bit the ways in which text can function as an image (especially through our typesetting workshop) and the ways in which images can function as text (visual literacy, how we read Ernst’s images as a narrative, etc.). I think that especially if we agree that written text and visual images can be somewhat interchangeable, your argument that any novel can be seen as a collage makes a lot of sense. I think the difference might be that collages deconstruct images or text from other sources, then use them to reconstruct something new. In a typical novel written by one author, the text they create is made from sentences that they also create. They haven’t deconstructed any one else’s work to construct something of their own.
It’s also worth considering that Une semaine de bonte might be a kind of prototype graphic novel. A lot of notable graphic novelists drew inspiration from wordless novels like those of Lynd Ward, and Une semaine does tell a story graphically, although what type of story is sort of unclear. Since collage as an art depends so much on fragmentation and creating a whole from borrowed parts, it makes sense that the continuity between images would be less straightforward than in a more conventional graphic/wordless novel. However, stories told through images have always relied on a different act of reading, especially novels that have no text. For example, the supposed continuity between pages 48 and 49 is based on the woman’s position in bed and our position as a viewer relative to her; this kind of continuity depends on our having the knowledge of how to read images. Perhaps the continuity and narrative progression that we look for in novels is what Ernst is adapting in his images; he uses the surreal fragmentation already suggested by the style of his artwork and places it within a recognizable structure to inform how we should look at the images individually but also in narrative connection to one another.