Ekphrasis as a form of artistic and aesthetic polemics in V. Nabokov’s novel “The Gift”

The research aims to determine the significance of ekphrastic images in forming the artistic and aesthetic concept of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “The Gift”. The influence of visual arts on the nature of Nabokov’s prose has frequently been a subject of scholarly reflection in both Russian and international Nabokov studies; however, certain controversial points remain that require further explanation and robust argumentation. In this article, pictorial ekphrases are examined in their compositional and semantic correlation through the lens of intermedial analysis. The focus is on the ekphrases of two canvases by the fictional artist Vsevolod Romanov (the portrait of Countess d’X and the composition with a football player), which mark the beginning and the end of his journey from a poor Berlin wanderer to a successful Munich painter. The scientific novelty of the study lies in establishing the significance of ekphrastic images not only for the characters’ plot but also for the narrative plot. For the first time, Nabokov’s ekphrases are analyzed not as mere objects of description, but as subjects of aesthetic activity participating in the dialogue between the characters and the author. The research findings demonstrate that the interference of ekphrases in “The Gift” is designed to implicitly express Nabokov’s ideological and aesthetic position, a method rooted in the modernist (Apollonian) nature of his creative work.