Desengaño
In order to ascertain just how wide-ranging this
new form of play was, the semantic realm of the
word Desengaño should be examined. The word is
vitually untranslatable today, due to its complexity.
It is the opposite of the word engaño (error, illusion,
charm, deception, hoax, trickery, pretence) and
covers a vast territory that ranges from 'discovery'
(as in 'discover a deception'), 'disillusion' or
'disenchantment' to nuances such as 'disappointment'
and 'sadness'. The eighteenth-century Spanish dictionary
gave the word three principle meanings, all related:
>Desengaño. s.m.
Luz de verdad, conocimiento del error con que se sale del
engaño. Lat. Erroris cognitio.
[The light of truth, the exposing of the error that helps dispel
the charm.]
Desengaño. Se llama tambien el objeto que exercita al
desengaño. Lat. Quod erroris cognitionem excitat.
[It also means by which we discover a deception.]
Desengaño. Vale assimismo claridad que se dice a otro,
echandole la falta en la cara. Lat. Proprum libere dicterum.
[Can also be used to mean a truth we have told another by
throwing an error in his face]
It was as part of this relative polysemantism that eighteenth-century
moral literature used the word. An eloquent testimony to this is
Father Feyjoo's collected essays intitled 'Universal critical theatre
or diverse discourses of all kinds to be used for the exposing of
common errors' (Teatro critico universal o discursos varios de
todo genero de materias para el desengaño communes errores, 1725-8).
Goya's etchings also work in the same way. Thus in the inscription
on the frontispiece to the 'Dreams' the author specifies that their
aim is to 'banish (desterrar) harmful, vulgar beliefs and to perpetuate
in this work of caprices the solid testimony of truth'. The advertisement
in the Diario de Madrid, on the other hand, speaks of 'the censure of human
error and vices' (censura de los errores y vicios humanos). In the self-portait
frontispiece to the final series Goya includes additional elements from his own
authorial mise en scène. He places himself, as we have seen, in a dual
position: on the one hand, he is a desengañado ( a disappointed, disenchanted
person), 'sad' and 'contemptuous', and, on the other, a desengañador (he who
disenchants, who discovers a deception).
There is a degree of shrewdness and, at the same time, a degree of violence
in the very act of disenchantment. The literary figure of the Desengañado/
Desengañador, as invented by someone like Quevedo or Gracián, is a dual
and duplicitous creation. The Desengañado/Desengañador - the disenchanted
person who disenchants - knows in this instance that all is lies and illusions.
Even the word 'world' (mundus), which originally meant 'clean', is a lie. The
world, explains Gracián, is dirty and foul: 'mundus imundus'. Everything is
back to front, and the Desengañado/Desengañador is the one who knows it
and who reveals it. He always has one eye open (el cyclopes), adds Quevedo,
and is therefore capable of seeing the inside of things (mirar por dentro),
seeing through appearances, recognizing deceptions, scanning the world in
reverse (mirar al rebes). The Desengañado/Desengañador is the one who
can see, and who reveals that the world is representation, spectacle,
appearance and deception. Goya gets into the skin of this dual person, as
his self-portrait and the structure of the Caprichos demonstrate. The product
of an examination (free of illusions) of the world, these images, in order to fulfil
their destiny, had in their turn to return to the world, not to 'enchant' it but
to 'disenchant' it. No.1, Discovering, Disillusion, Disenchantment and
Sadness Street was probably the most appropriate place for this to happen.
From Goya, The Last Carnival
by Victor I. Stoichita and
Anna Maria Coderch
new form of play was, the semantic realm of the
word Desengaño should be examined. The word is
vitually untranslatable today, due to its complexity.
It is the opposite of the word engaño (error, illusion,
charm, deception, hoax, trickery, pretence) and
covers a vast territory that ranges from 'discovery'
(as in 'discover a deception'), 'disillusion' or
'disenchantment' to nuances such as 'disappointment'
and 'sadness'. The eighteenth-century Spanish dictionary
gave the word three principle meanings, all related:
>Desengaño. s.m.
Luz de verdad, conocimiento del error con que se sale del
engaño. Lat. Erroris cognitio.
[The light of truth, the exposing of the error that helps dispel
the charm.]
Desengaño. Se llama tambien el objeto que exercita al
desengaño. Lat. Quod erroris cognitionem excitat.
[It also means by which we discover a deception.]
Desengaño. Vale assimismo claridad que se dice a otro,
echandole la falta en la cara. Lat. Proprum libere dicterum.
[Can also be used to mean a truth we have told another by
throwing an error in his face]
It was as part of this relative polysemantism that eighteenth-century
moral literature used the word. An eloquent testimony to this is
Father Feyjoo's collected essays intitled 'Universal critical theatre
or diverse discourses of all kinds to be used for the exposing of
common errors' (Teatro critico universal o discursos varios de
todo genero de materias para el desengaño communes errores, 1725-8).
Goya's etchings also work in the same way. Thus in the inscription
on the frontispiece to the 'Dreams' the author specifies that their
aim is to 'banish (desterrar) harmful, vulgar beliefs and to perpetuate
in this work of caprices the solid testimony of truth'. The advertisement
in the Diario de Madrid, on the other hand, speaks of 'the censure of human
error and vices' (censura de los errores y vicios humanos). In the self-portait
frontispiece to the final series Goya includes additional elements from his own
authorial mise en scène. He places himself, as we have seen, in a dual
position: on the one hand, he is a desengañado ( a disappointed, disenchanted
person), 'sad' and 'contemptuous', and, on the other, a desengañador (he who
disenchants, who discovers a deception).
There is a degree of shrewdness and, at the same time, a degree of violence
in the very act of disenchantment. The literary figure of the Desengañado/
Desengañador, as invented by someone like Quevedo or Gracián, is a dual
and duplicitous creation. The Desengañado/Desengañador - the disenchanted
person who disenchants - knows in this instance that all is lies and illusions.
Even the word 'world' (mundus), which originally meant 'clean', is a lie. The
world, explains Gracián, is dirty and foul: 'mundus imundus'. Everything is
back to front, and the Desengañado/Desengañador is the one who knows it
and who reveals it. He always has one eye open (el cyclopes), adds Quevedo,
and is therefore capable of seeing the inside of things (mirar por dentro),
seeing through appearances, recognizing deceptions, scanning the world in
reverse (mirar al rebes). The Desengañado/Desengañador is the one who
can see, and who reveals that the world is representation, spectacle,
appearance and deception. Goya gets into the skin of this dual person, as
his self-portrait and the structure of the Caprichos demonstrate. The product
of an examination (free of illusions) of the world, these images, in order to fulfil
their destiny, had in their turn to return to the world, not to 'enchant' it but
to 'disenchant' it. No.1, Discovering, Disillusion, Disenchantment and
Sadness Street was probably the most appropriate place for this to happen.
From Goya, The Last Carnival
by Victor I. Stoichita and
Anna Maria Coderch
