SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF PAINTING IN FRENCH LITERARY TEXT (BASED ON MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ’S NOVEL LA CARTE ET LE TERRITOIRE)

Abstract

The article examines the specific features of the symbolic representation of painting in French literary text based on Michel Houellebecq’s novel La Carte et le Territoire. The study focuses on the functioning of the pictorial code as a means of intermedial organization of the literary text and as an important component of its semantic structure. Particular attention is paid to the linguistic mechanisms through which visual information, works of art, artistic practices, and elements of the painting discourse are verbalized and incorporated into the narrative space of the novel. The analysis considers lexical units denoting artistic activity, visual objects, artistic materials, and the results of creative work, as well as descriptive constructions and contextual oppositions that contribute to the formation of pictorial meanings.

The study demonstrates that the representation of painting in the novel is not limited to the reproduction or verbal description of visual phenomena. Through intersemiotic recoding, visual images are transformed into verbal signs and acquire additional semantic and symbolic meanings within the literary context. The pictorial code contributes to the characterization of the protagonist, the representation of his artistic development, and the conceptualization of his individual perception of reality. Particular significance is attributed to the symbolic contrast between different types of visual representations, which reveals the relationship between artistic choice, perception, and the construction of meaning.

The findings indicate that the interaction of verbal and visual codes enhances the semantic complexity of the literary text and contributes to its intermedial organization. Painting therefore functions simultaneously as an object of representation, a means of character construction, and a conceptual instrument for interpreting reality. The study confirms the significance of pictorial intermediality as a mechanism of meaning formation in contemporary French literary discourse.