The Scream by Edvard Munch has inspired an American poet Monica Youn to depict her impression of the painting and the story of its stealing in her poem Stealing the Scream (Youn). The poet has chosen the genre of ekphrastic poetry to express her idea. This genre implies describing another work of art, such as a painting, a sculpture, a photo, or even a musical composition. Ekphrastic poetry can use any perspective, from simple description to reflection of an artist’s or a subject’s feeling or idea. Munch’s The Scream belongs to expressionism, and it will be interesting to analyze, how the style of painting has influenced the composition of the ekphrastic poem devoted to it.
Expressionism is an avant-garde style in art, which tends to highlight the emotional condition of the images or characters or that of the artist. Instead of straight reflection of the reality, the work of art performs rather complicated interweaving of the real world, and the human soul and psychics. In expressionism, the images seem to have been passed through the filter of the artist’s soul, which liberates it from anything unnecessary and embodies it in more general forms and symbols. Having appeared in the late XIX century, this style penetrated all the fields of art, including painting, literature, cinema, music, and architecture; every kind of art found certain devices for expressing the idea of expressionism.
In her poem, the author uses such elements as plot, setting, and literary techniques. Instead of a simple description of a painting, the poet introduces the fascinating plot of the masterpiece’s stealing. This has given its effect in two ways: firstly, the author has managed to “animate” the painting, depicting its existence in the real life, which gives the possibility to feel closer to the picture; besides, having not been a witness of the theft, the author proposes to “envision” and to builds an imaginary picture of stealing, which also contributes to showing the author’s perspective in the poem.
Thus, the narration is not focused on the technique of stealing, as “it was hardly a high-tech operation”; the most interesting issue for the author is to express the thief’s emotion and to depict the atmosphere of the event. At the same time, the composition of the poem includes four points of view: those of the thief, the guards, the author, and the painting. We can see the emotions of them all in the poem, expressed using the setting and the literary devices.
The setting of the poem contributes much to express the author’s idea: instead of providing the authentic details, the author focuses on the small touches, consonant to the spirit of the event: “fifty-one seconds of videotape” describe the suddenness and dynamics of the event; “moonlight coming in through the broken window” and “the velvet ropes” depict the spirit of the outrage and the misery of the deserted place.
As well, the literary devices have played a significant role in the poem’s composition. The simile between the “videotape” and the “abstract overture” helps to transfer the spirit of the event. The strong device is the personification of the painting: the figure’s “hysteria” has acquired a new tint while the painting disturbed by the thief was carried away; the poem ends with another impressing device, such as the analogy between the “sun-red face” and the “boiling sky” of the picture. It makes a reader closer to the event and helps to imagine, how the hurrying theft’s memory grasps the separate single moments. This analogy exists not only in the color itself but also in the “boiling” emotions, which united the theft and the figure in the picture.
Thus, it is possible to say that in this ekphrastic poem, the author has not limited her literature idea by simple description, and has focused on showing several subjective points of view. The author uses literary devices to stylize the event and to highlight its emotional tinge using grasping the most eloquent details. Using these devices, Young also manages to connect the dramatic spirit of the poem to that of the painting. The author has approximated the style of the painting and has injected the spirit of expressionism into her work.
Bibliography
Youn, Monica. Stealing The Scream. Poets. Web.