THE FUNCTIONS OF EKPHRASIS IN HENRY JAMES’ NOVEL «PORTRAIT OF A LADY»”

Abstract

In the article the functions and poetics of ekphrasis in the novel «ThePortrait of a Lady» by the English-American writer Henry James are analysed.The functions of ekphrasis in creation of the plot and conflict of the novel arebeing studied. Ekphrasis is regarded as a kind of transformation of visualimages into a verbal representation that clearly and uniquely reflects theinteraction between the literary text and works of art.The factors that influenced the originality of ekphrastic descriptions in thewriter‘s fiction are defined. It is noted that the essence of ekphrasis is the verbaltransformation of visual art images. Regarding ekphrastic descriptions it is characterized by duality: 1) in theprocess of reproduction of real images the intention of this description to themost accurate and detailed reproduction is being demonstrated; 2) as arepresentation of an existing artistic integrity ekphrastic description getsadditional symbolic meaning, and then creates new images and meanings.According to researchers of Henry James‘ fiction (E. Dushinina, N.Goddess), the visual arts played a leading and most significant role in hisartistic practice, due to the subjective (biographical) conditions and objectiveones – historical, social and technological.The title of the novel «The Portrait of a Lady» demonstrates the«figurative-representational» dominant. It should be noted that the term«portrait» includes not only a reflection of the character‘s appearance, but alsoin a broader sense it helps to represent the «nature» of the character, we couldsay that it ―depicts‖ the appearance and therefore the inner world of the hero.The ekphrastic descriptions are used in the representations of theappearance of Isabel Archer and other characters. Her verbalized portrait isreminiscent to the reproduction of a work of pictorial art by means of literature.Traveling around Europe which new for her, Isabella Archer considering theworks of fine art, is trying to understand the essence of the Old World culture:she estimates, enjoys and tries to understand paintings from Tachits inGardencourt, visiting art galleries in Florence, Rome, London. Narrative of thenovel is filled with descriptions of works of art in comparison with thecharacters. Thus the features of heroine‘s perception of others and even eventsare explicated. So the ekphrastic descriptions become the part of the reality, butadditionally the get the psychological effect and help in uncovering the mostsignificant features of the moral, spiritual and psychological states of thecharacters.In conclusion it is defined that a pictorial ekphrasis plays special genreforming, plot-forming and characterizing role in the novel.