Sidorova O. G., Poluektova T. A.

Functionality of photographic ekphrasis in the genre of a Christmas story (J. Coe, P. Auster) P. 118 -126.

UDC 821(1-87)-3.09

DOI 10.37724/RSU.2023.80.3.012

Abstract. The article deals with the functionality of photographic ekphrasis in short prose by contemporary Anglo-American writers. The materials for the research are quite representative stories by Jonathan Coe Ivy and Her Nonsense (1995) and Paul Auster’s Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story (1990) (no Russian translations have been published). The authors of the article consider these works from the point of view of the classical Christmas tale genre and observe such preserved features of the Christmas story as the timing of events to the Christmas season, the theme of the family, the main character who is a child or an adult in a state of spiritual crisis, representatives of the infernal world, a Christmas gift, a miracle, return to God through prayer, the voice of a storyteller, a happy ending, and a moral, or “Christmas philosophy”. Using the comparative method, the authors conclude that J. Coe and P. Auster, on the one hand, follow the rich British tradition of Christmas tales originating in the 19th century, and on the other hand, reconsider its potential, introducing photography as a special philosophical and aesthetic category. Photographic ekphrasis is one of the main narrative strategies in artistic practice of the late 20th — early 21st centuries. That is why special attention is paid to the functioning of the genre at various poetological levels, although preserving the genre-defining functions. The research conducted makes it possible to attribute the two stories to the genre of photo-enhanced Christmas stories, as artistic experiments, due to the great influence of postmodern aesthetics and the originality of the artistic method of each writer. The results of the current study can be applied in study of Christmas prose written by modern English-language authors and related to the current-time context.

 

Keywords: Jonathan Coe, Ivy and Her Nonsense, Paul Auster, Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story, genre, postmodernism, Christmas story, photographic ekphrasis.

 

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