O fazer do mestre : reflexões sobre a criação artística em A Obra-prima Ignorada, de Honoré de Balzac

Abstract

This article proposes an interdisciplinary reading of the novella The Unknown Masterpiece (1831), by Honoré de Balzac, articulating reflections on artistic creation with theoretical contributions from different fields of knowledge from the humanities. Based on the trajectories of the characters Poussin, Porbus, and Frenhofer, the study investigates three modes of relation to art: the formative exercise of artistic practice (Sloterdijk, 2018), creation as a vital and poetic expression of cruelty (Artaud, 2023), and artistic thought as a cognitive and symbolic deviation within culture and the noosphere (Morin, 2002). Mobilizing the notion of literature of complexity as an epistemological resource, the analysis is grounded in the methodological approach of the sociology of the present (Morin, 1984), seeking to understand the novella as a cognitive operator. Throughout this trajectory, Balzac’s narrative is discussed not only as an allegory of the crisis of modern representation, but also as a device that challenges regimes of visibility, recognition, and symbolic belonging. In the end, Frenhofer’s tragic fate is revealed as a consequence of the incomprehensibility between singular creation and the cultural horizons of his time. The novella thus remains a fertile starting point for thinking about the links between aesthetics, subjectivity, culture, and complexity.