Reading and (not) seeing?
Breyten Breytenbach, who is a poet, novelist, essay-writer and painter, very rarely evokes his own pictorial oeuvre in his texts. An exception is a short story entitled “Paris.” This article will study the manner in which the narrative is suspended due to the inclusion — or intrusion — of a furtive...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
2016-12-01
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| Series: | Sillages Critiques |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4647 |
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| Summary: | Breyten Breytenbach, who is a poet, novelist, essay-writer and painter, very rarely evokes his own pictorial oeuvre in his texts. An exception is a short story entitled “Paris.” This article will study the manner in which the narrative is suspended due to the inclusion — or intrusion — of a furtive description of an existing etching. The I-narrator of “Paris” takes a hand-coloured etching, entitled S.A. Angel, to be framed; the implications of the discussion that takes place at the framer’s dominate the text from this point on. The presence of the artist in a frame shop, as well as the description of the framer closely examining the work of art, lead the reader to expect an ekphrasis, in other words, a detailed verbal description of the work of art S.A. Angel. The description of the etching, however, is fragmented, sketchy and elusive. If the pictorial text disappoints, the inclusion of a precise reference to the visual seems to corrupt the narrative. “Where does the lie start?” is the opening line of “Paris.” “Where does the lie end?” one is inclined to wonder, as the text, from the moment the pictorial is introduced, becomes embroiled in an existential and narcissistic questioning regarding the identity(ies) of the writer and painter Breyten Breytenbach. A reading of the extra-textual etching, S.A. Angel, which, interestingly, has an open book represented in its centre, will be used as another lens through which to look at the blurred picture the reader of “Paris” is left with. |
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| ISSN: | 1272-3819 1969-6302 |