EXPANSION OF REALITY AND LIMITLESS CONNECTIONS: A BONECA DE KOKOSCHKA, AFONSO CRUZ’S MATRYOSHKA BOOK

Abstract

The novel A Boneca de Kokoschka (2010), by Afonso Cruz, forms part of a network of literary and artistic works from various backgrounds and fields which incorporate the figure of Kokoschka’s doll. These works proliferate, weaving between them relations of inclusion and contiguity, leading us to lose sight of the original matrix and favoring the interartistic dialogue. In the novel, the doll highlights the tendency of fiction to expand, namely by the game of “transfictionnality”, and the repeated transgression of the border between reality and fi ction, notably through metalepsis. Therefore, A Boneca de Kokoschka allegorizes some trends of the contemporary novel, sketching out the contours of a new literary paradigm yet to be defined.