EKPHRASIS IN THE NOVEL “SKUTAREVSKY” BY LEONID LEONOV (TO THE 120TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WRITER’S BIRTH)

• Main Author: Dyrdin Alexander Aleksandrovich
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Ural State Pedagogical University 2019-02-01
• Series: Филологический класс
• Subjects: ekphrasis; allusions; intertextuality; painting; scenic ekphrasis; visual artifacts; art philosophy; literary motives; russian literature; russian writers; literary creation; novels
• Online Access: https://filclass.ru/en/archive/2019/3-58/ekphrasis-in-the-novel-skutarevsky-by-leonid-leonov-to-the-120th-anniversary-of-the-writer-s-birth
• ISSN: 2071-2405; 2658-5235

The article studies intertextual inclusions, allusions and ekphrasis in the novel “Skutarevsky” written by L. M. Leonov as an important feature of the poetic language of the writer’s artistic texts. Ekphrasis here is one of the key ways of plotting and portraying the characters of the novel, and contributes to the formation of a complete view of the world. Passages of the texts created by means of ekphrasis are used by Leonov as building blocks of the whole narration. The writer tends to expand the semantic, temporal and spatial boundaries of the worldview he creates, including signs, symbols and codes of the world and national culture in the narrative images. The composition of “Skutarevsky” includes ekphrastic descriptions as constituent parts containing the main properties of Leonov’s aesthetics. They are links within the author’s artistic optics and constructive elements of the poetic matter of the novel. The multiaspectual nature of the novel is associated with the presence of philosophical ideas in it. The central task of this article is to analyze the artistic and ideological features as well as thematic characteristics of the work, namely the manifestation of allusion in the novel “Skutarevsky” by Leonov, the disclosure of the form of ekphastic elements and their role in the poetics of the writer. Different types of ekphrases form the novel universe, becoming a way of the writer’s artistic and philosophical self-reflection. After all, ekphrasis in the work of Leonov is not a simple description of artifacts in art; it is a way of transforming the material of art into philosophically significant entities, as a result of which an artistic image of increased semantic capacity is created. It is important to emphasize that ekphrasis reveals the peculiarities of the understanding of the characters and the author, and is a prism of philosophical, artistic and aesthetic knowledge of the world. Besides, the article touches upon the issue of fusion of arts in Leonov’s works, and specifically synthesis of literature, painting and music, as well as the problem of relationship between the visual, the musical and the verbal. It is necessary to note that Leonid Leonov emerges as a writer with a pronounced visualization of the worldview and, consequently, of the poetic word.