Intermedial aesthetics in Nigerian literature in English (based on the ekphrastic novels of B. Okri)

Authors

  • Alena V. Zhylinskaya Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliezhnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

Keywords:

Ben Okri, hybridity, intermediality, medium, narrative, postcolonial studies, ekphrasis

Abstract

The article examines the intermedial aesthetics in the novels «In Arcadia» and «The age of magic» by the British-Nigerian writer B. Okri. The typology of intermedial phenomena by I. Rajewsky is examined, and the application of the theory of intermediality within the framework of postcolonial studies is justified. Special emphasis is placed onrevealing ways of interaction between text and elements of visual arts (such as painting and cinema) in the diegesis of the dilogy. The distinctive features of B. Okri’s ekphrastic narrative are identified. The peculiarities of inclusion of intermedial references in dilogy are established according to the object of reference: specific artifact (N. Poussin’s painting «Et in Arcadia Ego»), medial subsystem (the shokumentary genre) and elements of entire semiotic systems (painting, cinema, and news media). The study of intermedial connections in the works of B. Okri opens a new perspective on the problem of narrative hybridisation and contributes to bringing intermedial and postcolonial discourses together.

Author Biography

  • Alena V. Zhylinskaya, Belarusian State University, 4 Niezaliezhnasci Avenue, Minsk 220030, Belarus

    postgraduate student at the department of foreign literature, faculty of philology

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Published

2025-12-09

Issue

No. 3 (2025): Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philology

Section

Literary Research

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How to Cite

[1]
Zhylinskaya, A.V. 2025. Intermedial aesthetics in Nigerian literature in English (based on the ekphrastic novels of B. Okri). Journal of the Belarusian State University. Philology. 3 (Dec. 2025), 5–16. DOI:https://doi.org/10.33581/2521-6775-2025-3-%p.