GAUGUIN'S NOA NOA: ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE IN TEXT AND IMAGE
GAUGUIN'S NOA NOA: ASPECTS OF NARRATIVE IN TEXT AND IMAGE
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Date
1991
Authors
Day, Amy Elizabeth
Advisor
Hargrove, June
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Abstract
Paul Gauguin's novel Noa Noa is a fictionalized account of
his first Tahitian journey. The artist planned to combine his text
with ten woodblock prints, now known as the Noa Noa Suite; and
he began working on both the text and the images in 1893. The
two works were never printed together in the same volume, and
no information has been found concerning the placement of
images with text. There has been no investigation of the
relationship between these images and the written story they
were meant to accompany.
This thesis attempts to establish a functional relationship
between Gauguin's images and his text and to explore the many
different narrative levels employed in Noa Noa. Both the text and
the images are examined alone to determine how each functions
separately as a narrative. Then, when examining the two forms
together, the images are each found to connect with a specific
textual passage -- a passage almost always containing
references to Gauguin's previous works. This association
between text and image creates an entirely new narrative. It is
proven that, when writing about his painting, Gauguin created a
discourse between image and text that contains a multi-layered
reference to himself as a creator. Finally, it is shown that
Gauguin combined this intermedia narrative with other, more
universal narratives to elevate his own position as a creator.