Ekphrastic exposition in the novel "Metroland" by J. Barnes

In the article the poetics of ekphrastic exposition and the specificity of ekphrastic discourse in the novel "Metroland" by the English writer J.Barnes (1980) are analysed. The devices of creation and the function of each ekphrasis (introduction of a picture, drawing, book and a building into the text) are regarded in detail. In the exposition the description of canvases of famous painters is replaced by the description of the visitors of the National Gallery. The problem of interaction of the "alive" and "dead", "new" and "old" in art and life has further development in the artistic world of the novel. The notebook and the binoculars in teenagers' hands precede a complex system of verbal and visual observations of various "objects" (things, people and cities) made by the characters in changing temporal and spatial perspectives.