The English photoekphrastic detective novel of the second half of the 20th century (A. Christie, T. Findlеy): Tradition and innovation

The article examines the development of such a genre variety as the photoeкphrastic detective, embracing the period of the 1950s to the 1980s of the 20th century. The paper reveals the genre-forming potential of photographic eкphrasis, presented in the texts in the form of photograph descriptions found in classical detective literature (analyzed on the bases of A. Christie’s novel Mrs McGinty’s Dead, 1952) and its postmodernist version – in T. Findlay’s novel The Telling of Lies: A Mystery, 1986. Photography in the novels by A. Christie and T. Findlay helps the detectives (H. Poirot and Vanessa Van Horn, respectively) in the process of investigating a crime, but the degree of its being solved remains different. This is explained by the writer’s understanding of photography as an artifact, primarily determined by the general cultural situation. In the first instance, a photograph acts as a document characterized by the unambiguous force of evidence, it allows to find and punish the perpetrator; in the second one, the photograph acts as a visual artifact that challenges the photo-detective: its interpretation being ambiguous and directly connected with the narrative of the Other. The investigation in the novel The Telling of Lies is accompanied by Vanessa’s traumatic memories of her past during the Second World War, reflected in her diary, which actualizes the confessional discourse. The interweaving of various kinds of stories in the novel – detective and personal – contributes to the actualization of major social, historical and philosophical issues. Thus, as a result of the conducted research, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that the postmodern photo-ekphrastic detective is engaged in a dialogue with the classical detective tradition and at the same time promptly reacts to the changing social, historical, political conditions, which cannot but influence the transformation of its genre structure.