Die Stadt, or The City, was a fascinating graphic adventure. When originally discussing the work, we were asked to look for any examples of an overall narrative feature to the work, and I believe that the most pronounced story exists in the city itself. The story being told is not one that deals simply with a construction worker, a woman in… Read more →
Both words and pictures have different strengths, and what makes the graphic novel such a mighty format for storytelling is that it combines the two. Die Stadt presents itself entirely through images, and this makes interpreting it an interesting endeavor. Words are powerful tools – they provide names and labels, for one. Die Stadt’s lack of labels for its characters… Read more →
The narrative of life in the big city has been around since its inception; a hub of diversity and movement to which people flock to, to both find and lose themselves. This narrative of the big city would not be complete however, if it was without the juxtaposition of the wealthy and misfortunate who inhabit it. I feel that as… Read more →
While we were discussing “The City” by Frans Masereel one discussion point really caught my attention. Alot of people had ideas on whether or not there are main characters who appear in several panels but not in sequence. When we think about what’s essential for a novel, one of the first things that comes to mind is characters. A novel… Read more →
There were many different interesting points posed in our discussion in class about Die Stadt by Frans Masereel. Many people have brought up the treatment of women within the city, what the city does to the people within it and if the city could be a graphic novel if it doesn’t contain words. I think the city tells an interesting… Read more →
While reflecting on our class discussion of The City I know we touched briefly on the theme of violence/exploitation towards women, more specifically, the female body. Although we did not go into much detail or discussion about it, this topic does need more attention. It is fair enough to say that the violence against women is depicted through the text,… Read more →
Die Stadt is an interesting Graphic Novel. So interesting that it’s ability to be called a graphic “novel” comes into question. Does it have a narrative? Can something without a narrative be called a novel? If not, then why is this series of images so interesting? These questions popped into my mind during our class discussion on this piece and… Read more →
The classes discussion of Masereel, Frans The City (Die Stadt) was as diverse as could be expected from such a textless work. The distinct lack of explanation lead the reader to form their own, which many of us did, with either a few images in a row or by cherry picking a few that were spread out to forum a narrative that… Read more →
It’s easy to be caught off guard by the lack of unity throughout Die Stadt. I (almost frantically) flipped through the slides several times just trying to find consistency. I assumed the novel was intended to be a continuous narrative and was met with a wide variety of scenes. I began to understand that the series of woodcuts were not intended to tell one particular… Read more →
The author did his best to give every aspect of city life fair representation in the story “Die Stadt”. He shows this from the very first picture of a man sitting on a hill, looking towards the city. I believe that that man is the author trying to picture his city with none of the normal editing people do to… Read more →