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Copyright by Laura Mareike Sager 2006 - The University of Texas at ...

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King’s minister Calomarde, take over. But the drama has also been described as<br />

“un sueño de rebeldía frente a una situación opresora,” 124 th<strong>at</strong> is, as the artist’<br />

dream <strong>of</strong> his art as a tool <strong>of</strong> rebellion against the reign <strong>of</strong> unreason and terror.<br />

However, r<strong>at</strong>her than discussing how the drama as a whole ekphrastically<br />

transcribes Goya’s Sueño de la razón, I will focus on the dram<strong>at</strong>iz<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> this<br />

etching in its key scene. This scene thus not only represents an ekphrasis within<br />

an ekphrasis, but also a mini-drama within the drama, in other words, a<br />

“metadrama […] acted out within Goya’s mind.” 125<br />

At the beginning <strong>of</strong> this scene, Goya is shown sitting “en la misma postura<br />

que dio a su cuerpo en el aguafuerte famoso” (Buero 194; “in the same position in<br />

which he represented his body in the famous aqu<strong>at</strong>int,” my transl.), 126 when he is<br />

<strong>at</strong>tacked <strong>by</strong> several monstrous cre<strong>at</strong>ures (a b<strong>at</strong>-man, two pig figures, a horned<br />

figure, and a c<strong>at</strong> figure) who end up muzzling him and condemn him for various<br />

charges: “Por judío, masón, liberal, jacobino, insolente, impertinente, reincidente,<br />

pintor, masturbador, grabador…” (Sueño 198; “Declared a Jew, mason, liberal,<br />

insubordin<strong>at</strong>e, impertinent, incorrigible engraver, painter, masturb<strong>at</strong>or,” Sleep 52).<br />

Although the scene thus acquires political implic<strong>at</strong>ions, which are further<br />

highlighted <strong>by</strong> the cre<strong>at</strong>ures’ references to their support <strong>of</strong> the king, the scene as a<br />

whole clearly is a “sueño,” a dream. But this internal, psychological oppression<br />

<strong>by</strong> cre<strong>at</strong>ures <strong>of</strong> the artist’s imagin<strong>at</strong>ion is mirrored <strong>by</strong> a very real parallel scene <strong>of</strong><br />

124 Jesus Rubio Jiménez, “Goya y el te<strong>at</strong>ro español contemporáneo. De Valle-Inclán a Alberti y<br />

Buero Vallejo,” Anales de la Liter<strong>at</strong>ura Española Contemporánea 24.3 (1999). (“A dream <strong>of</strong><br />

rebellion against an oppressive situ<strong>at</strong>ion,” my transl.)<br />

125 Alison J. Ridley, “Goya’s Rediscovery <strong>of</strong> Reason and Hope: <strong>The</strong> Dialectic <strong>of</strong> Art and Artist in<br />

Buero Vallejo’s El sueño de al razón,” Bulletin <strong>of</strong> Hispanic Studies 73.1 (1996), 110.<br />

126 Marion Peter Holt transl<strong>at</strong>es this passage more liberally: “In lamplight, resting on his arms <strong>at</strong><br />

the far left <strong>of</strong> the table – and in the same position as in the famous etching – Goya dozes.” (50).<br />

95

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