Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva Trout
The fragmented composition of Elizabeth Bowen’s last novel Eva Trout displays scenes which may seem isolated and disruptive in the plot. This article focuses on one of those scenes in which the mute child Jeremy confronts his mother Eva with her own representation in the form of a clay head he has m...
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Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès
2012-12-01
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Series: | Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone |
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Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/4486 |
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doaj-f96ef963e1f5432ab1e6f673d18c13a22020-11-24T23:09:54ZengUniversité Toulouse - Jean JaurèsMiranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone2108-65592012-12-01710.4000/miranda.4486Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva TroutCéline MagotThe fragmented composition of Elizabeth Bowen’s last novel Eva Trout displays scenes which may seem isolated and disruptive in the plot. This article focuses on one of those scenes in which the mute child Jeremy confronts his mother Eva with her own representation in the form of a clay head he has modelled. The argument is based on the “intertextual anamorphosis” described by Neil Corcoran but it applies this notion outside the limits of Bowen’s previous works. It appears that the action turns the characters into archetypal figures in a text that resonates with a multiplicity of distorted intertexts. In fact, the ekphrastic scene explores the process of literary creation as a duplication and transformation of the original, to the extent that the copy sometimes becomes a grotesque caricature.http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/4486claygrotesquelanguageintertextualitygenesisekphrasis |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Céline Magot |
spellingShingle |
Céline Magot Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva Trout Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone clay grotesque language intertextuality genesis ekphrasis |
author_facet |
Céline Magot |
author_sort |
Céline Magot |
title |
Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva Trout |
title_short |
Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva Trout |
title_full |
Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva Trout |
title_fullStr |
Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva Trout |
title_full_unstemmed |
Shaping words into fiction: The Grotesque Clay Head in Elizabeth Bowen’s Eva Trout |
title_sort |
shaping words into fiction: the grotesque clay head in elizabeth bowen’s eva trout |
publisher |
Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès |
series |
Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone |
issn |
2108-6559 |
publishDate |
2012-12-01 |
description |
The fragmented composition of Elizabeth Bowen’s last novel Eva Trout displays scenes which may seem isolated and disruptive in the plot. This article focuses on one of those scenes in which the mute child Jeremy confronts his mother Eva with her own representation in the form of a clay head he has modelled. The argument is based on the “intertextual anamorphosis” described by Neil Corcoran but it applies this notion outside the limits of Bowen’s previous works. It appears that the action turns the characters into archetypal figures in a text that resonates with a multiplicity of distorted intertexts. In fact, the ekphrastic scene explores the process of literary creation as a duplication and transformation of the original, to the extent that the copy sometimes becomes a grotesque caricature. |
topic |
clay grotesque language intertextuality genesis ekphrasis |
url |
http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/4486 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT celinemagot shapingwordsintofictionthegrotesqueclayheadinelizabethbowensevatrout |
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1725609179438120960 |