‘An imaginative woman' by Thomas Hardy as a photoekphrastic short story

The article deals with the short story by the English writer Thomas Hardy An Imaginative Woman (1894), which has not been translated into Russian. The author of the article analyzes this work from the point of view of genre features and classifies it as a piece of photoekphrastic prose. The argument in favor of this categorization is photographic ekphrasis, penetrating into such poetological levels of the story as plot-and-composition, character-related, spatiotemporal, narrative, motive-thematic. The perception of photography had a particular impact on the poetics of ekphrasis in the works of the Victorian era: it was not instantaneously perceived as a new and independent art form. Photo ekphrasis viewed through the prism of the Victorian times allows assuming its genre-forming function. It is not surprising that the mysticism of the photographic is reflected in photoekphrastic prose. According to the plot of the story, a photograph of a poet has an inexplicable impact on Ella Marchmill: looking at the photograph, she falls in love with him and commits adultery with him in her imagination and fantasies. After the suicide of the poet, whom she never met in reality, Ella dies. Having accidentally found the photograph in his house, the husband discovers some similarity between the child and the photographic portrait and kicks the child out of the house. The genre of Victorian short story, ‘open' and developing, turned out to be the most organic form for photoekphrastic experiments. Thus, the functionality of photo ekphrasis in a short story is very versatile: it creates external and internal eventfulness in the story; reveals the psychology of the characters; serves as an impetus for expanding the historical and cultural context of the Victorian era; acts as a link between two worlds - the real and the ideal, built with the help of the imaginary; embodies the motives of ‘meeting' and ‘recognizing', as well as the theme of death and identity (personal, social) of the characters. The participation of photo ekphrasis in the organization of all levels of the artistic system of the story allows us to classify it as the genre of photoekphrastic short story.