| Popis: |
The paper discusses the debut collection “The Left Bank and Other Stories” (1927) by Jean Rhys, the classic of modernist literature, which has not yet been published in Russian. The focus is on the specifics of artistic representation of Paris in a number of short stories/sketches of Rhys. Based on the reconstruction of the biographical context, the point is made on the writer’s selectivity of urban topography, aiming at deconstruction of the image of Parisian chic, especially the ideas shared by representatives of the bohemians who settled in Paris in the 1920s. A series of sketches can also be considered as an exercise in a minor form, allowing to gain confidence in working on larger canvases, the autobiographical novels Quartet (1929), Good Morning, Midnight (1939), united by common topoi of Paris. In the poetics of the texts by Rhys, elements of impressionistic art (representation of the momentary impression, subjectivity of view, attention to the color palette, etc.) and modernist writing (weakened eventfulness, attention to detail, incompleteness, epiphany, montage, narration in the form of “central consciousness”, leitmotives, etc.) are combined. Rhys introduces an element of irony over schematized pattern of images of Paris, creating a system of leitmotives united by the theme of disillusionment, the impenetrability of the inner world of a free artist (including a woman of an artistic temperament), and a city free from any normativity. In addition, the use of intertext is noted as a tool that makes it possible to introduce a new meaning into a sketch on a “given” topic. |
