Specifics of Artist Image Creation in P. Ackroyd’s Novel “Chatterton”

Abstract

The theme of creativity represented in P. Ackroyd’s novel “Chatterton” through the images of poets, writers, artists is analyzed. The features of the approach of the writer, the famous English novelist and biographer, to creation of works in the centre of which there is a creative person are revealed. Attention is paid to the complex structure of the novel “Chatterton,” which intertwine different time layers and fates of both fictional characters associated with creativity and famous writers of different centuries. The author reveals the peculiarities of the relationship of the book characters, who are a kind of Chatterton’s doubles, to the process of creating works of art. Special attention is paid to the issue of sources of creative inspiration and recognition of an artist. The author shows how the characters of the novel are connected by common problems that concern each of them, in particular by the interest in the fate of Chatterton, different versions of whose life or appearance they are trying to recreate. It is concluded that the image of creative personalities of different eras helps the writer to create an image of the artist true to his vocation - art, which exists forever and overcomes temporal and spatial limitations of the real world.

Keywords

• p. ackroyd
• novel
• biography
• chatterton
• postmodernism
• creative personality
• double