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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Main Author: Céline Magot
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès 2012-12-01
Series:Miranda: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/4486
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spelling 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
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