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Intermediality of 20th century in Azerbaijani literature as an impact of Western literary sophistication...
Section 11. Philology
Abdullayeva Yegana Atamoglan, Pr. ass. of Literature of foreign countries department of Azerbaijan University of Languages E-mail: yeganeabdullayeva2013@mail.ru
Intermediality of 20th century in Azerbaijani literature as an impact of Western literary sophistication (within parallels of literary activity of Afaq Masud and William Somerset Maugham)
Abstract: Presented article dedicated to the problem of intermediality in artistic literature. The author has elicited some theoretical conceptions of intermediality and substantiated her ideas with the examples from Azerbaijani and English literatures. In this article particularly parallels were carried out between the works of literature named “Theater" by W. S. Maugham and “The Woman who Commits Suicide on the Railway” by Afaq Masud.
Keywords: prose, Afaq Masud, Somerset Maugham, intermediality.
Azerbaijani Literature has never been away from the influences of existing changes and tendencies of the world’s philosophic and literary envision and constantly displayed inclination for adopting the innovative ideas.
Undoubtedly, the ideology of Azerbaijani literature has been influenced by modern literary movements and tendencies. They mostly are based on emerging innovative fluctuations aimed at comprehending the world and human being as well as elicit secrets oflife and also to explore new method of expressions for realizing the major missions of literature.
If one starts reviewing Azerbaijani literature, they will succeed to observe felicitous retransmission of processes occurring at studies of philosophical literature.
We might detect existentialism in the works of Anar and Elchin, surrealism and expressionism in the works of Afaq Masud, the elements of magic realism in the novels of Yusif Samadoghlu and Sabir Ahmad as well as postmodernist prose in creativity of Kamal Abdulla. Overall it is impossible to ignore the mechanism of intermediality in Azerbaijan written works of art.
The conception of intermediality has commenced to stand in line with the notions named “intertextuality” and “reciprocal art” in areas of philosophy, philology and art since the last decade of XX century.
Intermediality has been drawing attention as a language of artistic culture based on various kinds of art principles as well as a special methodology of analyses of art work and particular mode of imaginative text structure.
As Irina O. Rajewsky noted, intermedial quotations and extracts are considered to be realized by means of intertextual mechanisms [4].
The problem of reciprocal art was being watched by the usage of reminiscences (linked with other kinds of art study) in literary works.
Comparative literary criticism suggested researching mutual affinity of art by means of confrontation of characters and plotting in literary works.
Thus, the conception of “artistic system” emerged for summing up various areas of art and supplementing one other in reciprocal way on literary criticism.
Considering the study of the systems of culture as a principle in his book named “The Morphology of Art”, M. Kagan sees the entrance of art to a whole world as an open system and notes its reciprocal tie in different levels of meaning and semantic rates. According to Kagan for comprehending internal laws of art, one ought to define subordinate and co-ordinate interaction between artistic and creative work [2].
A. N. Veselovsky saw the unity of word and music or word and gestures within ritual text as “initial syncretism”. While bidding farewell to elementary epoch, the culture protested against the formulation of texts containing only single language system which were generated by means of severe codes in any genre [1].
Due to semiotic studies, texts containing of one single language and by means of transferring information, they possess modes of equal rights.
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Section 11. Philology
The words, color, shadow of a writer as well as tactics of an artist, the sounds of music are being organized by an architect and a sculptor in such a way that, all the specific codes and legislation of any art kind could be unified.
In other words, intermedial correlations are determined as an artistic channel of communication among the different kinds of artistic languages.
Actually in the system of intermedial relations the process of transmitting one artistic code to another one is fulfilled, then mutual association is performed not in semiotic mode but according to the meaning.
Involvement of the elements of one artistic type to another inappropriate art kind, leads to the alternation of the principles of the reciprocal bonds.
In fact, the interrelation emerges in the meaning of sounds but not in the language of art.
For instance, the figurative meaning of a composition, shape, coloring is transmitted to a literary text in the description of the painting. Therefore it generates specific impact and the association of vision is getting less and is giving its place to the meaning of association.
That is to say, stoical feature of the fine arts is substituted with the dynamicity and inconstancy of the literary character. Therefore, intermediality is linked with the analyses of the text but not with “the citations”. Moreover, intermediality is a figurative structure, combining the information of other artistic types in itself. It is the particular type of intertextuality which is based on the artistic codes of various kinds of art in a literary work and the creation of the distinct artistic space in the system of culture. Being a specific form of the cultural dialogue, intermediality is performed by means of the interrelation of the artistic quotations and such kind of artistic quotations are artistic characters, being distinctive for definite periods.
The storyline of the novel named “Theater” by W. Somerset Maugham is linked with the artistic feature of theatricality [3]. The performance is a significant element of the novel and the main character creates specific life spectacle and artistic existence of him due to legislation of art and this scene is going to be more important than the reality itself. The same opinion could be said about “The Woman who Commits Suicide on the Railway” by Afaq Masud and the main character Gultekin Sarabskaya is playing a role throughout the work. She creates a performance inside another performance with misleading the audience. Though scene decoration shows the main character on the railway station, she loses the borderline between reality and unreality and blending
the performance with reality or today with yesterday she showcases particular play of herself.
Even, the stage of suicide at the end of the play generates difficulty to understand whether her being dead in reality or her playing a performance. Throughout the story the hero plays with the language of parody and sarcasm and leads the events to her own direction creating a scene herself and the audience. While hinting to real events and being in miserable condition, she feels sorry for human and the fate of humanity, however she sarcastically signals upcoming events.
Taking for granted the elements of theater and using the principles of performance, Afaq Masud makes a scene out of another one.
Using the poems of Shakespeare, Goethe, Rückert, Ramiz Rovshan, Vagif Bayatli, the writer generates intellectual scene with the language of the hero, however she links the reciting of the poems with such kind of events that, feeling the rules of play, the audience is faced with an elite and mass dilemma. For the writer, theatrical reminiscences are the modes of interpreting the essence of esthetic bonds towards life and Afaq Masud becomes a real director of her own “play”. Within the framework of her play, the author paves the way for her characters to perform the conception of “life and art”. As well as W. S. Maugham, Afaq Masud puts in motion the character of her hero according to the distorted scenario.
The writer elicits the theatricality by means of specific descriptive device and the image of theater in the artistic material of the play or in the semantic level bears the distinct burden of meaning. We can observe these features both in creativity of W. S. Maugham as well as in Afaq Masud. The language and style of the author accommodate itself to the model of social-physiological narration.
W. S. Maugham portrays the man having particular inner world and creative individuality. This hero strives to explore more unlike and “unique” life style. Julia Lambert doesn’t act against everyday life on the contrary; she applies ordinary life events to art and the hero does it so creatively.
We can observe the same action in Gultakin by Afaq Masud as well. The woman who is becoming seventy years old is fired from the theater and young generation doesn’t need her talent and skills in acting. Despite the fact that she struggled against pressures with all her power, she lost her job. While being in comic circumstances, Gultakin Sarabskaya continues to play her role professionally. This play displays itself in her speech, relationship with humans, and indifference towards community
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Intermediality of 20th century in Azerbaijani literature as an impact of Western literary sophistication...
and the hero plays the life itself. Watching her play, the audience feels confusion as it becomes really difficult to differentiate if the actress is playing a role or she is displaying a segment of her real life.
We can detect intertextual audience together with the point of view of the readers in novel. Emerging such audience is connected with the playing behavior of Gul-takin Sarabskaya. The characteristic features of the theater portray itself in artistic world of the play and the heroine most times structures her behavior on stage and generates artistic scene. Observing real events, the reader adjusts to the rules of theater and in this case intertextual audience emerges. By means of theater mechanism, the causes of described events become clear.
In this case, the literary work called “The woman who commits suicide on the railway” by Afaq Masud could be estimated as a work of art combining the features of in-termediality.
The hero of Maugham, Julia Lambert as a director also conducts the people around her by dramatizing their behavior. Being professional actress and modeling the events, she watches these events like a director and at the same time evaluating the events from the spectator’s point of view, the hero arranges life events according to her play. Her professional and personal lives are in mutual relation with each other and most of the time it is hard to examine the borderline between life and theater.
Thus, ideological and artistic reflection of a theater inside a novel genre (“Theater”) gives us an opportunity to bring into line with the principles of intermediality. The factors defining the conception of intermediality, constantly represent the connection with other kinds of
art. Studying the language of theater in literature is connected with the problem of intermediality and defines the bond of various language channels.
The hero of W. S. Maugham clarifies individual aims with the help of art and acting, simultaneously the skill of playing in the most difficult situations aids him in figuring out vital issues and overcoming difficulties. One of the significant tasks is that, the theatrical password of both Afaq Masud and W. S. Maugham is disclosed not only in the system of characters but also in problems and themes of works. The main artistic feature of both works of literature is that, Julia Lambert as well as Gultakin Sarabskaya is the directors or actresses of their roles, simultaneously they act like an intertextual spectator who keeps distance for himself or herself. All these are the methods of utilizing the problems of one art type in the framework of another art kind and this ought to be recognized as a language of artistic culture based on the principles of various art kinds.
Above mentioned facts visually, again asserted intelligible and incontestable reality: mankind and humanist artistic philosophy logically are linked with the unbreakable ties as a lively organism and develops collectively. As same as the unique gifts of the mankind’s civilization, any national literature is capable of upgrading the quality of human’s intellect from age to age.
From this point of view, for surely we can announce that, the processes occurring in 20-21st centuries in Azerbaijani literature, indicated authors not to be closed towards innovative positive impacts of world philosophical-literary deliberation, on the contrary our writers are ready to adopt innovative world conceptions and present them to readers with high quality.
References:
1. Veselovsky A. From the Introduction to Historical Poetics: Questions and Answers. /Trans. & Ed. by B. Maslov - 1894.//[Electronic resource]. - Available from: http://www.academia.edu/1237152/Alexander_ Veselovsky_From_the_ Introduction_to_Historical_Poetics_Questions_and_Answers_1894.
2. Kagan M. The Morphology of Art: Historical and Theoretical Research on the Inner Structure of the World of Art. - L.: Iskusstvo, 1972.
3. Maugham W. S. Theatre. - N. Y.: Arno Press, 1977.
4. Rajewsky I. O. Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediali-ty//Intermedialites, no 6 au tomne 2005.//[Electronic resource]. - Available from: http://cri.histart.umontreal. ca/cri/fr/intermedialites/p6/pdfs/p6_rajewsky_text.pdf
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