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

GOYA’S EL SUEÑO DE LA RAZÓN IN A POEM BY GÜNTER KUNERT, A DRAMA
BY BUERO VALLEJO, AND A FILM BY CARLOS SAURA
Günter Kunert’s poem, Antonio Buero Vallejo’s drama and Carlos Saura’s
film use dramatic ekphrasis of Goya’s El sueño de la razón in order to create their
own “caprichos” in competition with that of Goya, and as a reflection of their
criticism of their own contemporary society. Using a montage of Capricho-like
images, that is, images of nightmare creatures that threaten the artist as well as
society, they mark the scene as a visual or verbal dramatization of Goya’s
Capricho 43, and as demonstration of the Prado commentary (“La fantasía
abandonada de la razón produce monstruos imposibles: unida con ella es madre
de las artes y origin de sus maravillas”). Thus evoking both Goya’s aquatint and
one of its written commentaries, all three works end with an explicit reference to
the artist’s ability to root out those monstrous creations through his art, thereby
also alluding to Goya’s comment on the Sueño I, the preparatory drawing for
Capricho 43. These dramatic ekphrases, the verbal or visual dramatizations of the
image and the texts, impose on a painting the writers’ and the filmmaker’s own
attitude toward the function and responsibility of the artist in society.
Günter Kunert’s Poem
Günter Kunert’s poem “Wenn die Vernunft schläft kommen die
Ungeheuer hervor” (“When reason sleeps, the monsters come forth”) is the first of
two poems comprised under the title “Zu Radierungen von Goya” (“On Etchings
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