The Emblems of Irredeemability

The Relationship between Visual Arts and Literature in the Works of Szilárd Borbély

Abstract

In this paper, I will examine the role of painting and photography as co-art forms in the works of Szilárd Borbély. I want to show that, from the 2004 Halotti Pompa to the poet’s death, certain works of art feature prominently in his oeuvre. These images enter into dialogue not only with the literary texts, but also with the most important issues of the creative period and with each other, thanks to the internal logic of the corpus. My paper attempts to map the functioning of these relations. First, I will review some of the defining aspects of Borbély’s works, which characterize the second phase of the author’s career in a comprehensive way and can provide adequate basis for interpreting the pictures. Then I reverse the direction of interpretation and try to place the works of art on the intellectual horizon of the Borbély texts. With this back-and-forth analysis, I would like to show that the images under study function as emblems of the individual volumes and the oeuvre.