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----- Forwarded message from spklein52@hotmail.com -----
Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 16:00:50 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: Nabokov lived in his past and his prose ...
To: spklein52@hotmail.com
)
------------------
WELCOME TO
-------------------------
THE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
A MEMBER OF THE CONSORTIUM OF HUMANITIES CENTERS AND INSTITUTES
Humanities Center Fellowships Public Programs in Humanities
[1]
Center for the Humanities
Autzen House
811 S.W. Jefferson Avenue
Corvallis, OR 97333-4506
541-737-2450
Email[2]
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/Newsletter/2000-spring/nabokov.html[3]
NEWSLETTER
-------------------------
THE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
A MEMBER OF THE CONSORTIUM OF HUMANITIES CENTERS AND INSTITUTES
AUTZEN HOUSE OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY[4] May 2005
-------------------------
NABOKOV CARRIED TRADITION OF GENTLEMAN NATURALIST INTO MID-CENTURY
Although writer Vladimir Nabokov often used a hand lens for his
taxonomic study of butterflies, historian Daniel Alexandrov may be
the first to treat Nabokov himself as a "lens," specifically to
provide a view of fundamental changes in Western culture during the
first half of the 1900s.
"A Russian aristocrat, writer and scientist, Nabokov represents the
features of a cultural world of 'aristocratic' natural history which
blended aesthetics and science," said Alexandrov, a Center Research
Fellow and historian of science from the European University of St.
Petersburg. "Through the lens of Nabokov and entomology, I'm studying
major changes in thought-style and lifestyle in the 20th century."
The changes signaled the end of "genteel" cultural practices rooted
in 19th century culture, a shift that Alexandrov said can be
attributed to a number of factors, including World War I,
industrialism, and a move away from classical education. An important
aspect of the shift was the replacement of traditional taxonomy by
modern science, a transformation that Nabokov resisted. That he
refused to change his thinking in response to contemporary Darwinian
views makes him a useful focal point for Alexandrov's analysis of
changing cultural practices in Russia and the West.
Nabokov's science, like his writing, is inseparably rooted in a
privileged upbringing in a St. Petersburg house and country estate
rich with paintings and insects, art and nature. Butterflies and
beetles were for him, as for other aristocratic entomologists of the
time, aesthetic objects akin to paintings and engravings. Nature was
equated with art, and the conservation of nature with the
preservation of art.
When the Bolsehvik revolution forced the family to emigrate to
Europe, the trappings of an aristocratic lifestyle were left behind
although Nabokov's aristocratic point of view remained intact even
when he moved to the United States in 1940. He taught at Wellesley
and worked for six years as a curator of butterflies in the Museum of
Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Already a published novelist in
Russian, Nabokov's first publication in English was the article, "A
Few Notes on Crimean Lepidoptera."
His vision of nature and belief in the immanent laws of form put
Nabokov at the center of a debate in taxonomy and evolutionary
biology fueled by Darwinian ideas, including Ernst Mayr's population
concept of species, that is as an interbreeding population rather
than a set of individuals sharing observable "type" characteristics.
A sharp critic of Mayr, Nabokov wrote, "Taxonomists would be far
better in describing with precision all the morphological details of
certain forms than in studying so-called populations - what a
dreadfully misused and hideous word, anyway."
In his autobiographical Speak, Memory, Nabokov marvels at the
elaborate mimicry in larvae and butterflies aimed at fooling
predators, and dismisses Darwin's evolutionary explanation: "'Natural
selection,' in the Darwinian sense, could not explain the miraculous
coincidence of imitative aspect and imitative behavior, nor could one
appeal to the theory of 'the struggle for life' when a protective
devise was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and
luxury far in excess of a predator's power of appreciation. Both were
a form of magic, both were a game of intricate enchantment and
deception."
The new taxonomic approach attempted to eliminate aesthetics from
science, said Alexandrov, by its recognition of the boundaries
between the scientific and non-scientific, between science and art.
Some characterize the discarding of aesthetic principles for purposes
of biological classification as a "professionalization" of science but
this is too narrow a view - Nabokov and others like him were certainly
"professional" in their meticulousness. What changed was the notion of
expertise. When the aristocracy dominated public and professional
life, fields such as entomology, law and medicine were assumed to
require a "gift" for the work. Entomology, like painting, required a
"special eye." In the new industrial society, the keys to becoming an
expert were training and education.
Science, in particular, was assumed to be accessible to anyone who
could learn the skills, and this, in turn, was linked to the
education system. As part of the move toward efficiency in schools
after the war, high-brow genteel education was replaced by modernist
education, with a strong attack on gentlemanly, "useless" Latin and
Greek. Although Nabokov was sent to a school in St. Petersburg that
down-played Greek and Latin, his upbringing formed him into a
representative of high culture that, unlike many peers, he never
relinquished.
"Many who had been raised with aristocratic lifestyles 'surrendered'
in the 1930's, that is, they changed their minds, not just because of
arguments against the past but because their daily lives changed -
thought-style changes with lifestyle. But Nabokov lived in his past
and his prose. There was no need for him to change his life and mode
of thought."
Had he remained in Russia, it's possible, perhaps likely, that
Nabokov would have become an entomologist who wrote rather than a
writer who did entomology. Recognizing that both pursuits were of
consuming seriousness - and prodded by his wife, Vera - Nabokov
focused on writing, and was not employed as an entomologist again
after the Harvard stint although he collected and studied butterflies
until his death in 1977.
Although Alexandrov will include several other expatriot Russian
entomologists in his study, Nabokov is the key figure. His loyalty to
aesthetic essentialism into the middle of the 20thcentury, said
Alexandrov, "allows us to view both the cultural richness of a form
of life to which he belonged and the ending of its existence brought
about by general changes in the modernization and professionalization
of science."
-------------------------
Home [5] [6]
Links:
------
[1]
http://osu.orst.edu/cgi-bin/mailto?to=cfth@orst.edu&sub=Center+for+the+Humanities+Web+Site&nexturl=http://osu.orst.edu/dept/humanities/index.html&nexturl_txt=Center
for the Humanities Home Page
[2] mailto:cfth@oregonstate.edu
[3]
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/Newsletter/2000-spring/nabokov.html
[4] http://osu.orst.edu/
[5] http://osu.orst.edu/dept/humanities/
[6] http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/newsletter.html
----- End forwarded message -----
Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 16:00:50 -0400
From: "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: SPKlein52@HotMail.com
Subject: Nabokov lived in his past and his prose ...
To: spklein52@hotmail.com
)
------------------
WELCOME TO
-------------------------
THE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
A MEMBER OF THE CONSORTIUM OF HUMANITIES CENTERS AND INSTITUTES
Humanities Center Fellowships Public Programs in Humanities
[1]
Center for the Humanities
Autzen House
811 S.W. Jefferson Avenue
Corvallis, OR 97333-4506
541-737-2450
Email[2]
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/Newsletter/2000-spring/nabokov.html[3]
NEWSLETTER
-------------------------
THE CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES
A MEMBER OF THE CONSORTIUM OF HUMANITIES CENTERS AND INSTITUTES
AUTZEN HOUSE OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY[4] May 2005
-------------------------
NABOKOV CARRIED TRADITION OF GENTLEMAN NATURALIST INTO MID-CENTURY
Although writer Vladimir Nabokov often used a hand lens for his
taxonomic study of butterflies, historian Daniel Alexandrov may be
the first to treat Nabokov himself as a "lens," specifically to
provide a view of fundamental changes in Western culture during the
first half of the 1900s.
"A Russian aristocrat, writer and scientist, Nabokov represents the
features of a cultural world of 'aristocratic' natural history which
blended aesthetics and science," said Alexandrov, a Center Research
Fellow and historian of science from the European University of St.
Petersburg. "Through the lens of Nabokov and entomology, I'm studying
major changes in thought-style and lifestyle in the 20th century."
The changes signaled the end of "genteel" cultural practices rooted
in 19th century culture, a shift that Alexandrov said can be
attributed to a number of factors, including World War I,
industrialism, and a move away from classical education. An important
aspect of the shift was the replacement of traditional taxonomy by
modern science, a transformation that Nabokov resisted. That he
refused to change his thinking in response to contemporary Darwinian
views makes him a useful focal point for Alexandrov's analysis of
changing cultural practices in Russia and the West.
Nabokov's science, like his writing, is inseparably rooted in a
privileged upbringing in a St. Petersburg house and country estate
rich with paintings and insects, art and nature. Butterflies and
beetles were for him, as for other aristocratic entomologists of the
time, aesthetic objects akin to paintings and engravings. Nature was
equated with art, and the conservation of nature with the
preservation of art.
When the Bolsehvik revolution forced the family to emigrate to
Europe, the trappings of an aristocratic lifestyle were left behind
although Nabokov's aristocratic point of view remained intact even
when he moved to the United States in 1940. He taught at Wellesley
and worked for six years as a curator of butterflies in the Museum of
Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Already a published novelist in
Russian, Nabokov's first publication in English was the article, "A
Few Notes on Crimean Lepidoptera."
His vision of nature and belief in the immanent laws of form put
Nabokov at the center of a debate in taxonomy and evolutionary
biology fueled by Darwinian ideas, including Ernst Mayr's population
concept of species, that is as an interbreeding population rather
than a set of individuals sharing observable "type" characteristics.
A sharp critic of Mayr, Nabokov wrote, "Taxonomists would be far
better in describing with precision all the morphological details of
certain forms than in studying so-called populations - what a
dreadfully misused and hideous word, anyway."
In his autobiographical Speak, Memory, Nabokov marvels at the
elaborate mimicry in larvae and butterflies aimed at fooling
predators, and dismisses Darwin's evolutionary explanation: "'Natural
selection,' in the Darwinian sense, could not explain the miraculous
coincidence of imitative aspect and imitative behavior, nor could one
appeal to the theory of 'the struggle for life' when a protective
devise was carried to a point of mimetic subtlety, exuberance, and
luxury far in excess of a predator's power of appreciation. Both were
a form of magic, both were a game of intricate enchantment and
deception."
The new taxonomic approach attempted to eliminate aesthetics from
science, said Alexandrov, by its recognition of the boundaries
between the scientific and non-scientific, between science and art.
Some characterize the discarding of aesthetic principles for purposes
of biological classification as a "professionalization" of science but
this is too narrow a view - Nabokov and others like him were certainly
"professional" in their meticulousness. What changed was the notion of
expertise. When the aristocracy dominated public and professional
life, fields such as entomology, law and medicine were assumed to
require a "gift" for the work. Entomology, like painting, required a
"special eye." In the new industrial society, the keys to becoming an
expert were training and education.
Science, in particular, was assumed to be accessible to anyone who
could learn the skills, and this, in turn, was linked to the
education system. As part of the move toward efficiency in schools
after the war, high-brow genteel education was replaced by modernist
education, with a strong attack on gentlemanly, "useless" Latin and
Greek. Although Nabokov was sent to a school in St. Petersburg that
down-played Greek and Latin, his upbringing formed him into a
representative of high culture that, unlike many peers, he never
relinquished.
"Many who had been raised with aristocratic lifestyles 'surrendered'
in the 1930's, that is, they changed their minds, not just because of
arguments against the past but because their daily lives changed -
thought-style changes with lifestyle. But Nabokov lived in his past
and his prose. There was no need for him to change his life and mode
of thought."
Had he remained in Russia, it's possible, perhaps likely, that
Nabokov would have become an entomologist who wrote rather than a
writer who did entomology. Recognizing that both pursuits were of
consuming seriousness - and prodded by his wife, Vera - Nabokov
focused on writing, and was not employed as an entomologist again
after the Harvard stint although he collected and studied butterflies
until his death in 1977.
Although Alexandrov will include several other expatriot Russian
entomologists in his study, Nabokov is the key figure. His loyalty to
aesthetic essentialism into the middle of the 20thcentury, said
Alexandrov, "allows us to view both the cultural richness of a form
of life to which he belonged and the ending of its existence brought
about by general changes in the modernization and professionalization
of science."
-------------------------
Home [5] [6]
Links:
------
[1]
http://osu.orst.edu/cgi-bin/mailto?to=cfth@orst.edu&sub=Center+for+the+Humanities+Web+Site&nexturl=http://osu.orst.edu/dept/humanities/index.html&nexturl_txt=Center
for the Humanities Home Page
[2] mailto:cfth@oregonstate.edu
[3]
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/Newsletter/2000-spring/nabokov.html
[4] http://osu.orst.edu/
[5] http://osu.orst.edu/dept/humanities/
[6] http://oregonstate.edu/dept/humanities/newsletter.html
----- End forwarded message -----