Ekphrasis in Houellebecq＇s The Map and the Territory as Mise-en-Abyme and as Metafiction

In Michel Houellebecq＇s novel The Map and the Territory （2010）, the references to visual art, painting, and photography take a central place in the narrative. In addition to the verbal representation of artworks, there is an entire system of commentary, interpretation, and criticism of art. The references to visual art appear explicitly as ekphrases which splice the narrative time and again. The unique nature of ekphrasis in The Map and the Territory lies in its representation of art devoid of an origin in the real wodd; for the paintings in The Map and the Territory do not exist in reality but are pure literary paintings, in the full meaning of the word, as the artworks mentioned in the story have an existence restricted to Houellebecq＇s novel. The article analyses the ekphrases in The Map and the Territory and argues that they are a virtual visuality mediated by words, employing solely the technique of ekphrasis as an enhancer of meanings in a text and thereby foregrounding its artifice. It further argues that the ekphrases are open to a field of interpretive possibilities by contemporary society, as every ekphrasis features within it subversion and a contemplation on contemporary reality