Głód życia. Dwa oblicza pożerania w malarstwie René Magritte’a
Hunger for Life. Two Faces of Devouring in René Magritte’s Paintings

Summary/Abstract: René Magritte was a Belgian surrealist painter. It is often said that it is impossible to analyze and interpret works of surrealists, because they are an illustration of realms, such as dreams and hallucinations, which cannot be seen for nobody except the artist. Even if we agree with this thesis the situation is different with Magritte and that is what I will show in the text. I am going to describe two of Magritte’s paintings: The Pleasure from 1927 and The Famine from 1948. Both these painting relate to eating or rather devouring living beings. To analyze both of this paintings, I’m going to try to show cultural context related to them in reference to religion and mythology. An important point of my analysis will be reference to the concept of meatiness. For that I’m going to use of the text by Jolanta Brach‑Czaina, The Metaphysics of meat. However, the analysis will only be an excuse to try and answer the question: is the act of eating meat only an ordinary activity or maybe something more?

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