Genological Narrative Models in Paul Verlaine’s Prose Poems

Abstract

The aim of the article is to study the specific features of the narration in Paul Verlaine’s prose poems. Historical and genetic origins of prose poems were analyzed. We observed that poems in prose became extremely popular at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, meeting the demands of modernism regarding the change of the aesthetic canons through the renewal of artistic systems and types of narration. The prose poems sketches are characteristic of subtlety in reproducing the personal experience, in subtle play of the colours and chiaroscuro which create impressions, moods and association. The exterior details, landscapes, nature become the means of conveying ambivalent emotional process. The research describes, analyzes and generalizes the narrative models of the prose poems by Paul Verlaine, on the material of his “Mémoires d’un veuf” (“The Memoirs by a Widower”). Research methodology is based on integrated use of systematic, philosophical aesthetic approaches; cultural-historical, contextual, biographic methods; theoretical studies carried out with narrative typologies and methodological analysis of the main narrative strategies as important components of the artistic storytelling in the text. We define narration as the system of principles of constitution of the text at the deep level of its formation in complete agreement with the nature of the narration featuring the following components: specific traits of the organization of the chain of episodes; way of presentation of the writer’s theme; presentation order of events; focalization as a condition node, that affects the perception and reproduction of events; presentation type of statements and opinions of characters in the text. The basis of the model division of narration types in prose poems is the syncretic nature of the genre, which involves interpenetration of epic and lyrical principles, «superimposement» of some modifications. Depending on the dominance of certain genealogical elements and stylistic dominating idea of the work, the contexture of the narration is prevailed by epic-realistic or lyrical-impressionistic components. It has been found that according to the plot-compositional structure, the works of the epic-realistic block are divided into two categories: the first category has the dominance of the linear principle, the second – of the fragmentary construction principle with the strengthening of aestheticization and intellectualization. The works of the lyrical-impressionistic model contain an internal psychologized plot, attention to feelings and changes in emotional state, stylistic syncretism, an appeal to «eternal themes». The position of the lyrical hero, personal authorial experience, is closely connected with lyrical semantics.