Ekphrastic exposition in the novel “Still life” by A. S. Byatt

In the article intermedial structure of the novel “Still Life”, written by the British novelist A. S. Byatt, is investigated. The title of the novel, its contents, dedication and three epigraphs denote its complicated system of verbal and visual interrelationships, which are externalized in the ekphrastic prologue. Bounding three main characters by the walls of a post-impressionist exhibition, Byatt creates “intellectual space” of ekphrastic exposition that covers not only this novel but the whole tetralogy telling about the Potters family. The authors of the article analyze multilevel dialogical ekphrasis, objects of which are paintings of Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin. Description of paintings is represented through the characters’ eyes in the form of inner speech. It is interrupted by their flashbacks and meditation upon different issues of life and painting, by conversations of guests of the exhibition. Pictorial reminiscences and quotations from Van Gogh’s letters dilute fictional space of the novel, referring a reader to other verbal and visual texts.