“Visual Codes and Ekphrasis in the Works of A. M. Remizov”

The study examines the functional role of ekphrasis in the prose of A. M. Remizov and the formation of his unique visual-verbal “cultural code,” using the works The Pond (1905), The Weeping Ditch(1914–1918), and The Judgment of God (1925) as primary material. The aim of the research is to reconstruct Remizov’s system of visual codes and to identify how the lubok print, satirical caricature, and icon become carriers of cultural memory and instruments for comprehending the spiritual crisis of the Silver Age and the period of emigration. The focus lies on the interaction between image and word, in which visual motifs do not simply illustrate the text but create a specific artistic optics that shapes the structure of Remizov’s myth-making. Ekphrasis in Remizov’s works functions as a narrative mechanism capable of transforming an everyday object into a symbol, and a symbol into an element of the author’s metatext, reflecting the movement from reality toward a dreamlike, metaphysical depth. Thus, the analysis of visual codes makes it possible to reveal the inner dynamics of the writer’s artistic world. The methodological framework includes an intermedial approach, structural-semiotic and motif analysis, as well as the comparison of Remizov’s texts with iconographic and lubok traditions, European painting, and the visual satire of the early twentieth century. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that this is the first systematic description of Remizov’s visual code as an integrated intermedial system, in which the lubok, the icon, and the caricature function as “mnemonic supports” and mechanisms for interpreting cultural experience. The results obtained may be used for further research on the poetics of the Silver Age, issues of intermediality, visual theology, and the mechanisms of cultural memory in twentieth-century Russian literature. The study shows that lubok ekphrasis in The Pond (the image of the lion, the scene of “Fornication,” etc.) fulfills a symbolic-psychological function, marking the destruction of the family’s sacred space. In The Weeping Ditch, the caricature from Satiricon visualizes the hidden structure of the love triangle and the opposition between “old” and “new” Russia, intensifying the text’s ironic dimension. In The Judgment of God, the icon Joy of All Who Sorrow forms the semantic center of the narrative, serving as a mediator between human and divine will and modeling the experience of faith under conditions of historical catastrophe and exile.

A. M. Remizov, ekphrasis, icon, lubok painting, caricature, intermediality, Silver Age, symbolism, painting, myth-making.