SecrecyCuriosityand the Sacrilage of fiction
Lecture in Contemporary English Literatures
University of Silesia
Marcin Sarnek
Dan Brown The DaVinci Code• Michael Baigent, Richard
Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail
• I must pass on the secret • "All descriptions of
artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate"
Secret – Sacred• secenere, lat, sift apart, to separate as with a
sieve • secrecy – calculated exclusion form participation• experience and practice of secrecy elevates the
secret• secret – sacred – privacy• secrecy highlights the value of all revelations• protection and distribution of secrets – power• dissemination of information: sociology of
secrecy - sociology of curiosity• secrets – truth – deception – lying
Dan Brown The DaVinci Code• Michael Baigent, Richard
Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, Holy Blood, Holy Grail
• I must pass on the secret • "All descriptions of
artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate"
Secret - Truth• more fiction than facts • exposition of the secret – sacrilage• Passion of the Christ / The Da Vinci Code• secrets have to remain secret to be secret • telephone• an interplay of the thrill of desecrating
defacement with the horror of blasphemy• energy liberated by acts of sacrilege • literary semi-sacrilege
Robert Harris, Enigma, 1995
• Enigma, 2001, directed by Michael Apted, screenplay by Tom Stoppard
