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DOI: l0.24234Msdom.v3i2.734 Olha CHAIKOVSKA
Higher Educational Institution "Podillia State University", Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine E-mail: [email protected]
Iryna HUMENIUK
Higher Educational Institution "Podillia State University", Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine E-mail: irynahumenyuk79@gmail. com
Anastasiia TROFYMENKO
Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine E-mail: trofimenko2006@gmail. com
Alma KRUK
Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohiienko National University, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine E-mail: [email protected]
PHILOSOPHY OF DRAMATISATION IN THE CONTEXT OF ART INTERACTION IN W. S. MAUGHAM'S NOVELS
Abstract
The present study deals with the novel dramatization in the context of the synthesis of the art in the literature of the 20th century. The changes in the literary text caused by introducing a new pictorial and expressive technique are given. The use of pictorial and theatrical ekphrasis in Maugham's novels was analysed. W. S. Maugham's novels are considered through the prism of his theatrical experience. The paper attempts to interpret his poetics of dramatization as a way out of the epic and the creation of a qualitatively new multi-plate and multifaceted phenomenon.
At the narrative level, there is an interruption in the integrity of the story. Vertical layers add a horizontal plan for the development of the plot, and the subjective structure has changed at the level of inclusion of several storytellers. The study revealed that the connotations to paintings and plays increase the effect of descriptiveness and enrich expressive, emotional, and sensual perception. The method of "points of view" is used to overcome the plane of description and move to the sphere of the display. The clash of diverse "points of view" and their filtering by the dominant "point of view" of the narrator increases the dramatization influence.
Keywords: dramatization, novel, art, ekphrasis, W. S. Maugham, points of view.
Introduction
The issue of art synthesis gained popularity at the beginning of the 20th century in literature and figurative art, music, and architecture. In general, the desire for synthesis arises if the object realis-
es its limitations, expressive and depictive poverty. After all, "an artistic image formed utilising one art, modelling true or imagined reality, does not fully cover it". "The literariness of music, for example, is the result of a "rebellion" against semantic poverty, and the "musicality of literature"
argue against the lack of sound possibilities" (Rysak, 1996, pp. 6-10).
Due to some scientists (Wellek & Warren, 1956), one of the reasons for such synthesis is that literature sometimes consciously tries to achieve the influence of painting and music creation. As we know, certain countries in different periods have achieved a lot in one or two forms of art. For example, in England, the weak development of figurative art is explained by the domination of puritanism. Thus, literature acted as a means and an initiator of the popularisation of art. In addition, the process of synthesis of arts in the literature of the 20th century has acquired such a scale also due to the openness of the society to the proposed innovations in the field of synthesis of arts.
Furthermore, for example, the Ukrainian researcher of the synthesis of the arts in the context of Ukrainian literature O. O. Rysak is convinced that synthesis in fiction activates the processes of complementarity and interpenetration. As a result, the emotional power of the image and the artistic text as a whole increase. Meanwhile, synthetic creations, designed at the junction of arts, have a significant advantage over one-liners because they offer an improved "product" (Rysak, 1996). The artistic community, striving to create a perfect world model, pushes parallels in related arts. For example, the consequences of such searches in depictive art were the emergence of qualitatively new creative directions, such as an art movement called Fluxus and such artistic forms as performance and mail art.
Similar trends are observed in music. Thus, in France at the beginning of the 20th century, new trends appear that deny Impressionism as a style devoid of real life. Music is open for buffoons, eccentrics, shocking, etc. Eric Satie scandalises the community with the extraordinariness of his "inventions": "Three plays in the form of a pear" and "Dried embryos for piano" (1917). The innovator introduces the sounds of a printing press, grunting, knocking, and the sounds of jazz into musical works.
As for the midterm literary process, deca-
dence becomes the symbol of the search in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This literary movement, for instance, united the opponents of Victorian values in literature. On the one hand, at the beginning of the 20th century, English literature seeks to free itself from emotional restraint, stiffness, and oppression. On the other hand, the transition period is the time of the so-called de-pressurisation of art at all levels.
Integration of art forms can be achieved in different ways. This may be a simulation of the material texture of another art form in literature. We are talking about visual forms in poetry (acrostic, anagrams, palindromes) or prose. Thus, "the poets of the New York group used the experience of other art types when compiling collections of their texts" (Uspenskyi, 1970, p. 174): the publication "New Poems" was built on the ancient principle of strophe and antistrophe. Since a graphic illustration accompanies each poetic text, the names of the authors and illustrators are highlighted in the collection's content. "Thoughtful selection of drawings", according to B. Uspenskyi, "presents a new interpretive version of each poetic text". Another integration option involves projecting the formative principles of a musical work, an architectural building, a work of painting or a film in a literary text. Finally, images, motives, plots, narrative techniques of works of one kind, music, graphics, and sculpture incorporate into a work of another medial rank. For example, the text of the novel in M. Vaino's novel "Warm Yard, or Rhapsody of the String Quartet" "is full of music because the musical semiosphere covers the names of composers, the names of works, the terminology". Since the name in each title is iconic, they act as a means of updating "ideas about beauty and harmony" and "make up a semantic pattern that is superimposed on prose text" (Uspenskyi, 1970, p. 176).
Similarity to a musical work is achieved not only due to the names of sections called musical terms but also to the "dictionary of musical terms located at the beginning."
"Incorporation" as a description of the works
or motifs of painting, sculpture, music, and cinema in a literary work was called "text in-text" in research from Lotman (1970) "art in art" in the textbook on literary studies by Ezhi Farino and "heraldic construction" in M. Yampolskyi's reflections on intertextuality and cinematography.
Such "incorporation" can perform various functions, such as informative (providing information about certain areas of being and heroes) or modelling and "in a hidden form interpret for the reader a certain world" (Farino, 2004, p. 378). "Art is introduced into art" also because of the desire to "discredit" or, conversely, to state "certain systems of modelling the world". Meanwhile, the "incorporation of art" into the work of art reveals the essence of the author's attitudes regarding the interpretation of the category "work of art", "understanding of other systems and attitudes towards them, author's requirements for the correct system, etc." (Farino, 2004, p. 379).
World literature in the late 19th - early 20th century accumulated many works where there was a reflection on the issues of fine art, music, and sculpture. Writers learned the musical, pictorial, and sculptural concepts at different levels of the artistic text and chose for the characters of their works painters, composers, sculptors, and musicians, which, in turn, actualised the problems of music, painting and sculpture in art. Among the brightest examples that absorbed elements of various types of arts are "Strong as death" by G. De Mopassan, "Manetta Solomon" by the Goncourt brothers, "Impromptu Phantasie" by O. Kobylianska, "In the Forest" by Lesia Ukrainka, and "Iscariot" by V. Vilshanetska.
Schopenhauer's belief that the purpose of each art is to become like music has become relevant. Such writers master the musical concept as Lawrence, T. Mann, and H. Hesse. Musical elements in literary works may be involved at the level of a "musical" composition inscribed in a literary work or function as an element of literary fiction or a source of musical aspiration; music can be the theme of a work of art, motive, image, allusion, etc. The text in the musical environment
functions differently: the literary work's hidden "musical" properties are revealed. As a result of borrowing, the emotional strength of the motive, and image, on the reader increases.
This study aims to reveal manifestations of dramatization at different levels of the novel poetics in W. S. Maugham's works and determine the nature of dramatization in the context of art interaction in W. S. Maugham's novels.
The principal research methods are specified by the aim, objectives, and research content. Historical-genetic, structural-functional, comparative-typological, hermeneutic, and holistic-system analyses of the text were applied in the current research.
Meanwhile, the synthesis of literature and painting in English literature should be considered an ancient tradition, the foundation of which was laid during the creation of the national school of English painting, presented in the 18th century by Hogarth's work, and the formation of educational realism in literature. However, the theoretical development of the idea of the connection between poetry and painting in England dates from 20-30 years of the 18th century and is associated with attempts to interpret art from the point of view of general aesthetic categories. Since the inclusion in the artistic space of art made it possible to go beyond the usual form and create a qualitatively new artistic phenomenon, synthesis started to be absorbed by both foreign and domestic writers, and, accordingly, it became an actual object of research scientists.
The French philosopher Paul Virilio characterises the beginning of the 20th century as the era of dialectical logic of the image, basing its division on the way of presenting reality. The mode of vision in the 20th century, according to the philosopher, is changing: there is a merger of the "eye and lens". So, vision goes into the visualisation stage. Visual arts reach a completely different level of perception: "being in motion, the viewer follows the moving images. And, accordingly, the new "cinematic poetics" of visual arts creates an active influence on the literature of the XX century, significantly enhancing its creative
and communicative properties". Thus, romantics relied not on "the reproduction of external forms, but on the expression of the spiritual, ideal", and music, poetry and theatre were considered the most important of the arts; in the context of decadence, literature, the principal place was given to spatial art: architecture, graphics (Bochkareva & Tabunkina, 2010, p. 23).
What changes led to the introduction of a new pictorial and expressive technique in the form of a literary text? "In the process of interaction of aesthetic fields, there is an intensive "build-up of new faces", excitation of inert components and, most importantly, the birth of new qualities". As a result, "vertical amplitudes are superimposed on the horizontal level (plot canvas, leitmotif, figurative system), the artistic word appears simultaneously in several dimensions: semantic-emotional, rhythmic-melodic, colouristic, that is, in the force fields of poetic, musical and pictorial imagery" (Rysak, 1996, p. 6).
As a result of the assimilation of musical, pictorial, graphic and sculptural techniques, the work of art turns into a multifaceted spatial phenomenon. At the narrative level, there is an interruption in the integrity of the story. Vertical layers add a horizontal plan for the development of the plot, and the subjective structure change at the level of inclusion of several storytellers, which, in turn, contribute to the panoramic depth of comprehensible phenomena.
The work of W. S. Maugham turned out to be consonant with the "synthetic" trends of marginal literature. As evidence, the central characters of the writer's three novels are artists (the artist "Moon and Coppers", the writer "Pies and Beer" and the actress "Theater").
To identify the specifics of the functioning of the elements of pictorial and theatrical arts, it is advisable to find out the aesthetic attitudes of the writer, which, in turn, have philosophical origins.
During different periods of his creative career, W. S. Maugham prefers different philosophical tendencies. He was sure that almost all writers are attracted to philosophers. However, only those endowed with the emotional strength of
influence are difficult to understand. For example, W. S. Maugham appreciated pragmatists, particularly Bertrand Russell, who was characterised by life wisdom and sense and an understanding of human weaknesses. The attitude of W. S. Maugham to art can be considered pragmatic, the value of which is in the right actions it encourages. "To hire an attic and eat pate (in the original "cottage pie", which translated as "shepherd's pie" (nutritious and inexpensive dish)), made by one single maid, is unusual for the artist. "This shows not selflessness, but a petty and boring soul" (Maugham, 1989a, p. 476). The writer mentions Titian, Rubens, Sir Walter, and El Greek in this regard. W. S. Maugham states that "Titian and Rubens lived like princes". For example, "Pope had his Grotto and his Quincunx and Sir Walter his Gothic Abbotsford". With his suites of rooms and his musicians to play to him while he ate, his library and his grand clothes, El Greco died bankrupt. It is unnatural for the artist to live in a semidetached villa and eat cottage pie cooked by a maid of all work (Maugham, 1951, p. 108).
The most exciting thing in art for W. S. Maugham was the artist's personality in case "if it is original, then I am ready to forgive him a thousand mistakes". "An actor, artist, poet or musician, with his art, beautiful or inspiring, satisfies the aesthetic feeling" (Maugham, 1989b, pp. 2930). Art is the manifestation of feelings that "speak the generally accepted language" because art is not for the chosen ones.
The interpretation of life as a tragedy puts the aesthetics of the writer in line with Schopenhauer's fatalism. Nevertheless, even the belief that "life is a tragedy and by his gift of creation he enjoys the catharsis, the purging of pity and terror, which Aristotle tells us is the object of art", does not sound categorical because he (writer) turned his suffering, unfulfilled dreams, illnesses, humiliation into artistic material, because only "The artist is the only free man" (Maugham, 1951, p. 120). The fascination with materialism and physiological determinism was replaced by Kant's teachings and the theory of solipsism,
which had one drawback: "It is a perfect theory; it has but one defect; it is unbelievable" (Maugham, 1951, p. 84).
It should be noted that W. S. Maugham embodied the results of philosophical searches in the work "Summing up". In addition, creating his aesthetic concept, the writer used novel texts as an experimental field for approbation. Thus, in the work "The Burden of Human Passions", with the help of images of Hayord and Kronshaw, aestheticism is denied. In the manner of Oscar Wilde, Kronshaw reflects on art; however, the result of these lush speeches is the "ugly existence" of the drunken philosopher. Aestheticism and decadence were also unacceptable because, according to W. S. Maugham's theoretical writings, hard work is a way to achieve mastery. In addition, the writer's life program included a mandatory attribute of daily hard work.
The life and writing experience of the novelist was embodied in the aesthetic concept, which is based on three values: Truth, Beauty and Goodness. According to W. S. Maugham's concept, the first category is very often replaced by such concepts as courage, honour, and independence of spirit. W. S. Maugham states that Truth is the ability to make a correct, truthful and impartial judgment. It is difficult to judge why we should owe Maugham's desire for just sentences: the unwillingness to sacrifice Truth as a sacrifice to our vanity and benefits or simply to the complex character of the writer. In any case, the problem of prototypes in the novels of V. S. Moem was raised quite often. Recall, for example, T. Hardy and Hugh Walpole ("Pies and Beer") and Alis-tair Crowley ("Magician").
Reflecting on Beauty, the writer admits that works of art are "the crowning product of the human activity, and the final justification for all the misery, the endless toil and the frustrated strivings of humanity" (Maugham, 1951, p. 183). The suffering and death of millions of people were worth "Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Shakespeare's speeches and Keats' odes". This thesis of the writer's aesthetic concept was embodied in the
novel "the Moon and Coppers". The narrator, as previously emphasised, avoids comments and direct conclusions. However, the aesthetic views of W. S. Maugham suggest that the artist's "crime" against others is a painful break with his family for his wife and children, the betrayal of a friend, and the suicide of Blanche Struve, is justified by the original genius of his paintings. Later, the writer admits that he surrounded himself with paintings by Picasso, Renoir, and Matisse to fill life not only with beauty but also with meaning. "I modified this extravagance later by including the beautiful life among the works of art that alone gave a meaning to life, and it was still beauty that I valued" (Maugham, 1951, p. 183).
Meanwhile, W. S. Maugham received more persistent aesthetic pleasure from imperfect things: "I noticed that I got a more lasting satisfaction from works of a more tentative character". It is they who "gave more scope for the activity of my imagination". In the case of comparing this statement with the figurative system of novels of the writer, we conclude that the images of W. S. Maugham's heroes-artists, first of all, Strickland and Driffield, deliberately create the effect of "silencing" some characteristics, facts, etc. After all, in this way, the reader's imagination is unlimited in creating his image of Paul Gauguin and Thomas Hardy. W. S. Maugham is convinced that the value of art lies in the aesthetic emotion to which it evokes: "Its only importance is that it should give us here and now the aesthetic thrill and that aesthetic should be a move us to works". So, by creating the images of heroes-artists, pictorial and theatrical ekphrases, the writer aimed to strengthen aesthetic emotions, sending the reader to the connotations assigned to them.
W. S. Maugham, all his life, was fond of art. Not surprisingly, he started to attract pictorial and theatrical techniques in novels. Firstly, the work with the main character-artist not only draws attention to the problems of the creative personality in modern society but also increases the intellectual level of artistic storytelling. Sec-
ondly, the writer applied the aesthetic principles of his concept, which were implemented in the problems, plot construction and image formation. Thirdly, because of the fusion of the epic with the pictorial, a special kind of poetics arises. In this way, the novel acquires internal pictorial me-lodics, and immersion of pictorial and theatrical ekphrasis contributes to the volume of the image and the strengthening of aesthetic emotion in the reader.
Synthesis is a search for a "new artistic language in all forms of art" and an update of the artistic interpretation of the world aimed at "creating modified art", the purpose of which is to immerse the "finished recipe" of famous paintings, musical works and works of plastic art in the artistic text is known as ekphrasis. According to L. M. Geller (2002), ekphrasis "received the second youth" (pp. 6-9) at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.
In the present study, the term "ekphrasis" is investigated from a narrative point of view, when "a detailed description of the subject serves to get the ekphrasis beyond the ordinary narrative" (Geller, 2002, p. 23). The attention is focused on expanding the boundaries of the ekphrasis description towards dramatization as one of the characteristic features of W. S. Maugham's poetics. The analysis was carried out within the genre of "Kunstlerroman" or "a novel about the artist" based on V. S. Maugham's novels "The Moon and Sixpence" (1919) "Theater" and "Burden of Human Passions". Significantly, the subject of the study will be not only the picturesque ek-phrasis but also the theatrical (novel "Theater"), which has not yet been researched. The study aims to examine the peculiarities of ekphrasis as one of the essential factors of the author's poetics of dramatization. To implement it, it is necessary to identify and analyse the works of art and theatrical reminiscence in the texts of novels.
In "Summing Up" (1938), for example, the writer remembers that at the age of twenty, influenced by the work of W. Peter and D. Raskin, he reviewed all the paintings the writers admired. Almost every work contains the writer's reflec-
tions on the art and essence of creative genius. In December 1941, W. S. Maugham's article "Paintings I Have Liked" was published, and it was dedicated to the writer's favourite paintings. The work "Purely for my pleasure" (1962) considers his private collection of paintings: the writer describes all the events connected with the famous artist's work: purchasing doors painted by P. Gauguin and acquaintance with Matisse are mentioned.
The theme of art is the central topic in the novel "The Burden of Human Passions". According to Stanley Archer's calculations, the writer, attracts thirty-three artists' names, thirteen of them are French, five are British, and one is American. The main character Philippe studies art in Paris and visits the Louvre and the National Gallery. Discussions about art in a bohemian environment impact the hero's inner world and significantly change the artistic guidance of the young man.
Art in "The Burden of Human Passions" performs two functions: descriptive and "reflects the development of the character". If the piece of a Persian rug, a gift to Philip from the poet Cron-shaw, ideal holds the key to the meaning of life, art marks Philip's progress on the way to an understanding of the meaning. Evolution in the perception and reactions of the main character to works of art reflects Philip's search for the meaning of life.
Stanley admits that references to paintings greatly enhance the descriptive effect. W. S. Maugham, for example, recreates the landscape of the suburbs, sending the reader to the connotations of A. Watteau's paintings. However, there are often appeals to the pictorial ekphrasis to present female images: usually, they suggest disapproval or distaste. For example, "Cronshaw's French mistress with her red cheeks, large sensual mouth, and shining, lewd eyes, she reminded the Bohemienne in the Louvre by Franz Hals. "She had a flaunting vulgarity which amused and yet horrified" (Stanley, 1971, p. 189). The image of Ruth Celis "with her large brown eyes, thin, ascetic face, her pale skin, and broad forehead,
she might have stepped out of a picture by Burne-Jones" is formed by pictorial allusion to the painting by E. Burne-Jones (Stanley, 1971). And only "occasionally" W. S. Maugham attracts the pictorial elements "to convey a pleasing impression", as in the case of Athelney, when he says of his wife: "Doesn't she look like Rubens' second wife?" (Maugham, 1915, p. 538). The integration of pictorial ekphrasis to visualise the artistic image, landscape, etc., harmoniously fits into the poetic concept of the writer. The demand for a concise, apt and, at the same time, impressive narrative is satisfied by references to paintings.
W. S. Maugham attracts to the novel text 'The Moon and Coppers" different types of ekphrasis. The introduction of indirect ekphrasis to describe Dirk Struve and his wife Blanche serves to create roomy and impressive images, significantly increasing the effect of descriptiveness. Blanche Struve reminded the narrator of the heroine of Chardin's Benedicite painting ("she reminded me curiously of that pleasant housewife in her mob-cap and apron whom the great painter immortalised"). Dirk himself was like cheerful fat traders who liked to portray Rubens ("He reminded you of those jolly, fat merchants that Rubens painted") (Maugham, 1919, pp. 100101).
The description fits into one sentence and not only contains similar characteristics to the artistic and visual phenomenon but also opens up other perspectives. In an outwardly calm and balanced woman from the painting, Charden hid a passionate nature. The description of the interior of Struve's workshop, for example, was carried out with the help of fragmentary essays and single ekphrasis, which give the impression of meaningless accumulation: in one corner, a copy of the Venus of Milo, in another - Venus of the Medici, there was a copy from Velazqueziv "Innocent X" in an elegant gilded frame ("in a handsome gold frame was a copy of Velasquez' Innocent X") and his drawings also in a lush gilded frame ("in a handsome gold frame was a copy of Velasquez' Innocent X") and his draw-
ings in a lush gilded frame ("his pictures, all in splendid frames" (Maugham, 1919, p. 193). Judging by his paintings, "one might have thought that there had never been a Monet, Manet, or all the Impressionists" (Maugham, 1919, p. 78).
The descriptions of the narrator are superficial and underlined ironically: from the canvases, the settler "looked at" you rolled moustaches in sharp-top hats ("moustachioed, large-eyed peasants in peaked hats"), mischievous children in picturesque rags; women in colourful skirts ("women in petticoats"). "They walked in front of cathedral portals, walked among cypresses under the cloudless sky ("cypresses against a cloudless sky") (Maugham, 1989b, p. 78) and sometimes they made love by a Renaissance well-head" (Maugham, 1919, p. 95). The irony in the description, disparaging vocabulary such as "the settler looked", "poked", "dazzling picture", and "poor ideal", emphasise the banality of Dirk's work, deliberately outlining his art as false and unreal.
Instead, the description of Strickland's paintings in the novel looks different. The picturesque ekphrasis is marked by mobility and dynamism. Initially, the ekphrasis of his wife Struve's canvas resembles a graphic report: "It was a picture of a woman lying on the sofa, with one arm beneath her head and the other along the body, one knee was raised, and the other was stretched out. The pose was classic" (Maugham, 1919, p. 194). Gradually, ekphrasis acquires an expressive and emotional load: despair, jealousy, and ravine choked him ("grief and jealousy and rage, he cried out hoarsely"), and the description is given through the prism of sensuality ("passionate sensuality, which had in it something, spirituality, sorrow and new") and the physical sensation of miraculous ("so that you felt extraordinarily the weight of the body". So, we are talking about the expressive function of ecphrasis, when a set of emotions and sensations replaces the description of a work of art. In this way, there is a comprehension of the artistic object through the prism of the narrator.
An overview of Strickland's paintings in the
novel can be divided into three parts, each of which is marked by the dynamism of the installations because perception occurs from different recipients and perspectives: Dirk Struve and doctor Kutra. In our opinion, the voices of three witnesses of Strickland's peculiar artistic technique are distinguished, characterising the artist's paintings from different "points of view". Dirk was stunned and trembled by the picture. Kutra, the narrator, who admired Sisley and Degas, Manet and his "Olympia" and "Breakfast on the Grass", was confused, stoked and struck by "technical negligence" ("the clumsiness of his technique" irritated by disparities ("I was bothered because the plate was not round and the oranges were lop-sided") and exaggeration of forms ("the portraits were a little larger than life-size, and this gave them an ungainly look") (Maugham, 1919, pp. 214-215).
The narrator imagined that the forests in the vicinity of Fontainebleau and some Parisian streets were painted by a drunk driver ("my first feeling was that a drunken cab driver might have painted them"). Descriptions of the painting are saturated with verbs indicating changes in the narrator's emotional state: puzzled, disconcerted, and excited gave me an emotion that I could not analyse.
The ekphrasis in Strickland's paintings from the "point of view" of doctor Kutra is based on the sensual perception: "it took his breath away", "he was seized by overwhelming sensation, emotions he could not understand or analyse", "he trembled joyfully, as he was given to observe the creation of the world" (Maugham, 1989a, p. 217). "It was the work of a man who had delved into the hidden depths of nature and discovered secrets which were beautiful and fearful too. It was the work of a man who knew things which it is unholy" (Maugham, 1919, p. 300) in the ekphrasis of the artist's canvas combined with a disgusting stench. The picture's description is added by the effects that give the impression of physical sensation, emotional excitement and a smell that is used to overcome the uni plate of the depicted. In this case, the odour category is
also used for psychological impact on the hero: "bringing beyond reality into a state of trance" (Farino, 2004, p. 340), which contributes to the depth of assimilation of the object of painting.
The colour in the expanded ekphrasis (sombre blues), crimson (purple, horrible like raw and putrid flesh), deep yellows that died with an unnatural passion into a green) is characterised by opacity. Colour saturation combined with "opaque like a delicately carved bowl in lapis lazuli", admits the narrator, surprised and "inspired vague visions of the Roman Empire during Heliogabalus times" (Maugham, 1989a, p. 221). Moreover, the colour is used in contrasting comparison: "crimson" is contrasted with bright red tones (reds, shrill like the berries of holly), resembling sharp-leaved berries. The "gloomy passion" of the crimson symbolises the soul's secrets, and the flower's colour is associated with the Christmas holidays in England and the artist's hidden nostalgia for his native land (Humeniuk, 2020).
To create an ekphrasis of the paintings of the main character of the novel "Moon and Coppers", the method of "points of view" of G. James was applied. Each individual "point of view" on the technique of performing painting works contributes to creating a multispectral and reliable image of the object of painting. Under the influence of "points of view", ekphrasis turns into a vital factor in the dramatization of W. S. Maugham's poetics. In addition, in the context of the novel "Moon and Coppers", there is a phenomenon of imposing one "point of view" on another because the perception of paintings by Dirk and Doctor Kutra is passed through the "point of view" of the narrator. As a result, the double filtering of descriptions of paintings enhances the effect of dramatization. In addition, the analysis revealed the reception of antithesis used in the description of two paintings: dirk Struve's canvas and Strickland's "Picture of a nude". Opposition is present both at the level of the whole picture and within the colour, as in the case of contrasting the "crimson - bright red", which, in turn, emphasises the drama of human
existence. To create an ekphrasis of the paintings in the novel "The Moon and Coppers", the method of "points of view" of H. James was applied. Each individual "point of view" on the technique of performing painting contributes to the creation of a multispectral and reliable image of the painting. Under the influence of "points of view", ekphrasis turns into an important factor in the dramatization of Maugham's poetics. In addition, in "The Moon and Coppers", there is a phenomenon of imposing one "point of view" on another. The perception of paintings by Dirk and doctor Kutra is passed through the "point of view" of the narrator. As a result, the double filtering of descriptions of paintings enhances the effect of dramatization. In addition, the analysis revealed the reception of antithesis used in the description of two paintings: Struve's canvas and Strickland's "Picture of a Nude". Opposition is present both at the level of the whole picture and within the colour, as in the case of contrasting the "crimson - bright red", which emphasises the drama of human existence.
Instead, in "Theater", the pictorial ekphrasis, which directly names artists, acts either "as an emblem, stamp of the epoch, philosophy, time" (Geller, 2002, p. 165) (for example, "a copy of the painting by Lawrence - Camble as Hamlet" (Maugham, 1967, p. 11). In Julia's house; a dress resembled Botticelli's "Spring"), or to create a visualisation effect (a clear example is involvement of ekphrasis in portrait-gesture characteristics, like the seductive grimace "Lady Hamilton on Romney's portraits" (Maugham, 1967, p. 170).
Another distinguishing characteristic of the pictorial ekphrasis (Ingres' portrait) is the exit of the description beyond the artistic space of one novel. Accordingly, ekphrasis shows metatextual features. In "The Moon and Coppers", the narrator talks of his admiration for the perfect technique of Ingres, then in the "Theater", the reaction of the main character to the portrait of the same artist ("It was a portrait in a pencil of a stoutish woman in a bonnet and a low-necked dress with puffed sleeves"), was negative ("Julia
thought her and the ridiculous" (Maugham, 1951, p. 148). As you know, the narrator in "The Moon and Coppers" belonged to the type of people who valued and understood art well. His opinion will be authoritative for us. Instead, Julia in "Theater" is utterly indifferent to painting, bringing disharmony to the artist's image. Thus, the pictorial ekphrasis acts as an intertextual dialogue and contributes to the creation of a single for all of Maugham's "Ktinstlerroman" the chro-notope "painting".
Most of the ekphrasis presented in the novels is somehow connected with the theatre: the names of famous actors (Sarah Siddons, John Camble, Coquelin, F. Benson, Sarah Bernard, E. Douse), playwrights and performances ("Ghosts" and "Doll's House" by G. Ibsen, "Fatherland" by G. Zuderman, "Man and Superman" by B. Shaw). However, ekphrasis quotes from well-known dramas are significant for our study. The peculiarity of the theatrical ekphrasis is the dia-logical structure of the novel. The answer to Eve's question, a costume designer and maid of the actress, about what Julia is busy with was a quote from Shakespeare's "Hamlet": "Look here upon this picture, and on this". In contrast to Julia, Roger's expression in "Caesar and Cleopatra" by Shakespeare sounds ironic: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety" (Maugham, 1967, p. 141). Imagining the scene of the upcoming meeting with Charles, Julia paraphrases the line from "The Tragic Story of Dr Faust" by K. Marlo: "How Beautiful Elena is, you make me immortal with one kiss" (Maugham, 1967, p. 166). Thanks to the dialogue method of introducing the theatrical ekphrasis in the novel "Theater" enhances the dramatization of the story. Significantly, pathetic and intonation-saturated replicas from famous plays are accompanied by exaggerated and grotesque movements. The fact is that even in everyday life, Julia's behaviour is theatrical and aimed at impressing people. Let us focus on Julia's conversation with Charles: quotes from "The Merchant of Venice" ("Put out some of the lights and let the night in" and replicas from the play the main
character could not remember ("The greatest disappointment in life is not death, but the end of love" (Maugham, 1967, p. 173), accompanied by theatrical gestures and poses ("she threw back her head so that her neck was like a white column", "she was standing near the bed with her hands behind her back, a little like a Circassian slave", "she slowly raised her hands from behind her back and with the exquisite timing that came so naturally to her moved them forwards, stretching out her arms, and held them palms upwards as though there rested on them, invisibly, lordly dish, and on the dish lay her proffered heart"). Having chosen this type of behaviour for herself, Julia never demonstrates her real essence. We mean playing, clowning, and operating with a mask, which also extends to the sphere of Julia's private, intimate and everyday life. In addition, the pathetic nature of the quotes is emphasised by swearing "remarks to the side" like "what a bloody fool I must look", "idiotic", "A fat lot of good it did me last night", "What the devil's the matter with me?". It should be noted that the novel, unlike drama, does not tend to exaggerate. Therefore, there is every reason to see signs of dramatization in the pathetic and hyperbolic nature of the quotes.
To sum up, pictorial and theatrical ekphrasis occupy an important place in the structure of Maugham's novels. Their artistic expediency and poetic expressiveness are most associated with applying the "points of view" method to the description of paintings and theatrical scenes or replicas. In the novel "The Moon and Coppers", a set of different intensities of feelings and emotions of the characters, caused by the ambiguous perception of Strickland's work, creates the effect of a poly-subject narrative. Instead, in "Theater", the pictorial ekphrasis acquires signs of dramatization due to its meta-textual character. In addition, theatrical ekphrasis enhances the dramatization of the narrative through a dialogi-cal way of incorporating ekphrastic quotations into the text, accompanied by the excessive pathos of their proclamation and exaggerated gesticulation.
Conclusion
The writer's desire to create a concise and, at the same time, informatively rich and exciting story, and to incorporate pictorial and theatrical forms of influence to dramatize the novel, are in line with "synthetic" trends in the literature of the 20th century. The writer not only enriches his novels with dramatic techniques but also attracts pictorial and theatrical techniques to visualise inert components and to overcome the one-plane dimension. One of the main principles of Maugham's aesthetics is the recognition that art has value not only for the chosen people but the mass reader, entertainment as a component of poetics and the involvement of melodramatic elements. Secondly, a key role in art is assigned to the extraordinary and original personality of the artist. Thirdly, any flaws and crimes committed by artists can be justified by the Beauty of artworks and the power of aesthetic emotion they generate. This principle was also embodied in the "trilogy about artists". As one of the three categories of Maugham's aesthetic concept, beauty is associated with imperfection, which makes a longer impression on the recipient and contributes to the activation of the imagination. In the writer's novels, this principle applies to artists' characters and their art (Strickland's paintings, and Driffield's novel, for example, made a shocking rather than pleasant impression on "points of view" owners).
Most importantly, the value of art is in the aesthetic emotion that it evokes. This explains the use of pictorial and theatrical ekphrasis in Maugham's novels. The writer refers to the connotations assigned to paintings and plays to increase the effect of descriptiveness and enrich expressive, emotional, and sensual perception. The method of "points of view" is involved in the creation of a work of art. As a result, Strickland's paintings overcome the plane of description and move to the display sphere. The clash of diverse "points of view" and their filtering by the dominant "point of view" of the narrator increases the influence of dramatization.
The theatrical ekphrasis, which functions in dialogues and is accompanied by pathetic remarks, and exaggerated and grotesque movements, in its turn, contributes to the creation of the game, clowning, which is perceived by others as reality.
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