FUNKTIONS AND SPECIFICITIES OF FIRST-PERSON NARRATION IN TRACY CHEVALIER’S “GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING”

Abstract

The present article seeks to uncover new semantic layers and interpretative vectors of Tracy Chevalier’s novel Girl with a Pearl Earring through an analysis of its narrative design. The research methodology combines narratological analysis with elements of intermedial comparative studies and genre theory. A multi-tiered examination has revealed the pivotal role of first-person narration in articulating the central ideas of the novel and in shaping the image of the heroine-narrator. Special attention is given to the “event of narration” (M. Bakhtin) as a fundamental act of subjectivity performed by the heroine, as well as to the construction of her personality through the perceptual dimension of narrative perspective. A distinctive feature of the heroine’s worldview, realized within the poetics of narration, is her synesthetic perception – most notably, the systematic transformation of auditory impressions into visual equivalents. This synesthetic disposition necessitates the transposition not only of auditory impressions into visual imagery but of both modalities into verbal expression. The analysis further demonstrates the distributive relations between verbal and visual (painterly) modes of perception, emphasizing how verbal self-expression serves as a vehicle for the heroine-narrator’s creative potential. It is proposed that the very gesture that transforms Vermeer’s painted model into a narrating subject may be discerned in the sitter’s pose: her turning back to glance at the viewer, in conjunction with a direct and expressive gaze and slightly parted lips – as if on the verge of speech – constitutes a pictorial analogue of first-person narration. At the same time, just as the dark, neutral background of Vermeer’s portrait conceals the world surrounding the depicted figure, so too does the narrator’s voice withhold her most profound experiences and value judgments. In this way, the heroine’s narrative becomes a verbal correlate of Vermeer’s portrait, paradoxically uniting radical openness with radical concealment. These observations allow for the conclusion that, in addition to existing definitions of the novel’s generic specificity, Girl with a Pearl Earring may also be conceptualized as a “novel of ekphrasis,” in which the ekphrastic dimension is realized through first-person narration according to the strategy of “disclosure and concealment.”