Ekfraza jako apokryf. O powieści Saturn. Czarne obrazy z życia mężczyzn z rodziny Goya Jacka Dehnela

Abstract

This article discusses ekphrasis in relation to the category of literary apocryphon (and Danuta Szajnert’s conclusions about it). Bringing these terms together seems to be surprising due to the nearly opposite meanings of these two words of Greek origin (ékphrasis may be translated not only as a ‘precise description’ but also as an ‘explanation’, ‘clarification’, ‘expression’, while apókryphos means ‘hidden’, ‘latent’, ‘dark’, ‘cryptic’). Nonetheless, because of various changes of the meaning of the second term, actual literary apocrypha enable the explanation, clarification or expression of some aspects hidden in the pre-text. The precise subject of this study is Jacek Dehnel’s apocryphal novel Saturn. Czarne obrazy z życia mężczyzn z rodziny Goya (Saturn. Black Paintings from the Lives of the Men in the Goya Family), in which literary descriptions of Francisco de Goya’s famous Black Paintings function not only as a counterpoint or a decorative supplement to the plot, but also as a device of revealing the “real” genesis of Pinturas Negras (in Dehnel’s novel it is Francisco’s son, Javier, who creates the paintings).