Subject
Nabokov Studies #6: Abstracts
From
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. NABOKOV STUDIES #6 is now available. The annual issue
contains 240 pages and costs $25.50, or $65 for three years. Contact
Editor Zoran Kuzmanovich at <NabokovStudies@davidson.edu>. In addition
to the nine articles abstracted below, it included ten reviews. All
Nabokov scholars should subscribe, as well as making sure your library
subscribes.
-------------------------------------
Nabokv Studies 6 (2000/2001)
Abstracts
David Andrews
Varieties of Determinism: Nabokov among Rorty, Freud, and Sartre
In 1989, Richard Rorty published an important, philosophically astute
essay on Vladimir Nabokov entitled ⌠The Barber of Kasbeam: Nabokov on
Cruelty.â– Despite this essayâ–“s general excellence, however, it makes the
curious mistake of all but dismissing Nabokovâ–“s notorious antipathy for
Sigmund Freud as symptomatic of a jealousy borne of similarity. Though
the author of the following essay has learned much from Rorty, he
disputes Rortyâ–“s conflation of Nabokov, an optimist, with Freud, a
pessimist. To this end, ⌠Varieties of Determinism■explores the
intellectual divide separating Nabokov from Freud by contrasting their
divergent attitudes on determinism as said attitudes relate to art and
science. The essay also seeks to explain why, in the context of his own
project, Rorty makes the mistake of conflating two disparate figures in
the first place. From there, the essay turns to a fourth writer,
Jean-Paul Sartre. Another of Nabokovâ–“s bĐştes-noires, Sartre is
appropriate to this discussion insofar as his attitudes toward
determinism resemble Nabokov▓s in key respects. In sum, ⌠Varieties of
Determinism■builds on ⌠The Barber of Kasbeam■by placing its comments
into sharper focus and by extending its discussion of Nabokovâ–“s
metaphysical optimism into new areas: the scientism of Freud, the
existentialism of Sartre, and the pragmatism of Rorty himself.
Elena Sommers
The ⌠Right■versus the ⌠Wrong■Child: Shades of Pain in Bend Sinister
and Pnin
Trying to determine why Bend Sinister goes into such excruciating detail
in its portrayal of violence against the most vulnerable, the article
will analyze the means by which Nabokov communicates the most
language-resistant phenomenon--the intense physical pain of another. The
article will show how the writer deconstructs the process of torture in
order for the reader to then reconstruct it in his imagination, the
result of which is a literal, physical feeling of pain. Continuously
upsetting the readerâ–“s world, in Bend Sinister Nabokov transforms a
nanny, a nurse and a female doctor, the figures traditionally associated
with nurturing and mothering, into the members of a fine-tuned murder
team. Followed by a curious reader, the trio of the Bachofen sisters
(Mariette, Linda and Doktor Amalia) carefully and professionally carries
out specifically assigned roles in the torture and murder of the
eight-year-old David. The article will discuss the figure of Arvid Krug,
⌠somebody else▓s child,■⌠the wrong boy,■and its significance in
Nabokovâ–“s challenge to the readerâ–“s compassion.
David Galef
Nabokov in Fat City
Nabokov loved the casual abundance he found in America, but he also
disliked its vulgarity and felt conflicted about this split. This
ambivalence is revealed in his attitude toward the flesh, both his own
and his charactersâ–“.
Marina von Hirsch
The Presence of Nabokov in Bitovâ–“s Ficion:
Bitov and Nabokov, Bitov on Nabokov, Nabokov in Bitov
This essay explores the existence of an exclusive and complex literary
relationship between Andrei Bitov and Vladimir Nabokov, whom Bitov
considers to be his closest spiritual antecedent. This relationship
originated at the very start of Bitov's career, and since then has found
numerous reflections in Bitov's densely intertextual fictional and
discursive texts. These texts can be classified into four major
categories: 1) commentaries to various works that synthesize fictional
and critical discourse, among which the "Commentary" to Pushkin House
stands out as the most informative example; 2) fictional texts with
references and allusions to Nabokov; 3) discursive texts dedicated
specifically to Nabokov; and 4) miscellaneous interviews and texts that
mention Nabokov. Inquiry into some of these texts written by Bitov
reveals extraordinary affinities--stylistic, linguistic, thematic, and
philosophical--with Nabokov.
Savely Senderovich and Yelena Shvartz
The Juice of Three Oranges: An Exploration of Nabokovâ–“s Language and
World
This study presents a reconstruction of the workings of Vladimir
Nabokov's language. Nabokov should be read not only on the level of
narrative, but perhaps most plausibly on the level of recurrent motifs,
contiguous allusions, and favorite verbal games. Reading on the
micro-level and across his texts allows us to detect key motifs and to
recognize the contours of different and more profound stories told
within the surface stories. The context in which the orange motif
acquires its Nabokovian meaning can be briefly defined as the fairground
booth, the balagan, an overarching metaphor for the world within which
all of Nabokov's stories take place. The balagan implies a false,
unnatural and imposed life in which one is forced to play a prescribed
role; only an artist, a creator, may stage his own spectacle, performing
dazzling acrobatics, disavowing the heaviness of matter, and reaching
celestial heights. The tension between these two aspects as expressed
through the grotesque is the principal creative force in the world of
the balagan. All Nabokov's novels and many short stories and plays make
use of the orange motif dating back to Meyerhold's staging of Blok's
Balaganchik in the Tenishev school in 1914 and Carlo Gozzi's The Love
for Three Oranges, as well as to the magazine of the same title
(1914-16). Concepts of Russian avant-garde theater, especially those of
Blok, Meyerhold and Evreinov, are at the core of Nabokov's conception
of the balagan, which seems to constitute the encompassing inner
horizon of his world.
Samuel Schuman
Hyperlinks, Chiasmus, Vermeer and St. Augustine: Models of Reading Ada
In response to R. J. A. Kilbourn's essay "Ada in Chaismus: Chiasmus in
Ada, (NS 5), I offer a complementary, rather than contradictory model.
Kilbourn proposes reading the novel either from the center out to the
beginning and ending, or from the two ends into the middle. My
suggestion is that Nabokov seeks in the reader a mirror of his own
Augustinian omniscience, wherein the whole, and all its parts, are
apprehended simultaneously. Obviously, this strategy demands, in the
real world, multiple re-readings. I suggest that as the reader
approaches this omniscience, she or he moves ever closer to the position
of textual divinity assumed by the author.
Liana Ashenden
Adaâ–“s Erotic Entomology
Nabokov incorporates the natural world and natural science to a greater
extent in Ada than in any other novel except The Gift. Ada Veen is an
avid lepidopterist and botanist and her scientific interest drives the
memoirâ–“s extensive biological content. Van Veen, by contrast, focuses
humorously on the sexual connotations of insects and flowers (which are
associated in his memory with Ada and the intense excitement of early
sexual awakening). Indeed, the Ardis sections of the memoir almost
embody in perverse literal form what Kinbote in Pale Fire describes as
"the lust that Nature, the grand cheat, puts into us to inveigle us into
propagation" (621). The extent to which Adaâ–“s biological stories parody,
reflect and counterpoint the human plot is astonishing; yet readers must
pursue the offered glimpses of natural detail in order to uncover the
intricate motifs and patterns involving insects in the incestuous
relationships of the Veens.
Kurt Johnson
Recognizing Nabokovâ–“s Legacy in Science:
Where We Are Today, Where We Go From Here
Nabokov's accomplishments in science are reviewed and assessment made of
the direction of future scholarly interest in his work. Because
Nabokov's 1940s seminal work on blue butterflies ("blues") of the world
was not continued by others until the 1990s, the breadth of his
accomplishments has only been recently recognized. Nabokov was a pioneer
anatomist, originating many now standard anatomical terms and methods.
He was one of the first lepidopterists to study the entire genital
apparatus of butterflies in both sexes, consider North American
butterflies in terms of worldwide relationships, argue for a balanced
biological and morphological species definition, seek a genealogical
approach to classification, stress the importance of life cycle and
ecological studies in evaluating species, and opine that biogeographic
assumptions of his day seemed unsupported by anatomical studies of
blues. All Nabokov's taxonomic works reflect these interests and
expertise but his seminal studies of Latin American blues, where he
contributed nearly the entire classification still used today, are the
hallmark of his achievement. Modern DNA studies of North American blues
support Nabokov's conclusions; DNA studies of his Latin American blues
are in progress. Future interest in Nabokov's scientific work will most
likely focus on assessing his theoretical and philosophical views and
appreciating the multidisciplinary element of his intellect.
Brian Boyd
Azure Afterthoughts: Reflections on Nabokovâ–“s Pale Fire
Many responses to Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery
drew attention to suggestive particulars in Pale Fire whose purpose I
here try to ascertain. There are details and designs still to be traced
at every phase of reading Pale Fire: a first reading (the A-Z pattern,
which may also indicate the key role of Hazel that I proposed in NPF);
rereading (a "Botkin" implied in the "catkin" evoked but eschewed late
in the poem; implications hidden in place-names like Kobaltana or in
personal names like Sylvia O'Donnell); and re-rereading (the echo of
"The Vane Sisters" in the Vanessa at the end of Shade's poem and his
life; the scene starring Gordon, the boy from whom Gradus recoils but
whom the king has clearly possessed, as an ironic variation on the
pattern of women spurned; the echo of Pope's "distant northern land" in
the last three words of the Index).
---------------------------------------
REVIEWS
Gavriel Shapiro: Delicate Markers: Subtexts in N's Invitation to a
Beheading. By Stephen Blackwell
Christine Raguet-Bouvart: Vladimir Nabokov: La Poetique du masque. By
Jeff Edmunds.
Maxim D. Shrayer: The World of Nabokov's Stories. By Galya Diment.
Stephen Blackwell: Zina's Paradox: The Figured Reader in N Gift. By
Paul Morris.
Kurt Johnson & Stephen Coates: Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey
of a Literary Genius. By Robert Dirig.
Dieter Zimmer: A Guide to Nabokov's Butterflies and Moths 2001. By
Brian Boyd.
Brian Boyd. Nabokokv's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery. By
Charles Nicol.
Julian Connolly, ed. Nabokov and his Fiction: New Perspectives. By
Michael Wood.
David Andrews. Aestheticism, Nabokov and Lolita. By Chriastian Hunt.
The Centennial Omnibus. By Zoran Kuzmanovich
contains 240 pages and costs $25.50, or $65 for three years. Contact
Editor Zoran Kuzmanovich at <NabokovStudies@davidson.edu>. In addition
to the nine articles abstracted below, it included ten reviews. All
Nabokov scholars should subscribe, as well as making sure your library
subscribes.
-------------------------------------
Nabokv Studies 6 (2000/2001)
Abstracts
David Andrews
Varieties of Determinism: Nabokov among Rorty, Freud, and Sartre
In 1989, Richard Rorty published an important, philosophically astute
essay on Vladimir Nabokov entitled ⌠The Barber of Kasbeam: Nabokov on
Cruelty.â– Despite this essayâ–“s general excellence, however, it makes the
curious mistake of all but dismissing Nabokovâ–“s notorious antipathy for
Sigmund Freud as symptomatic of a jealousy borne of similarity. Though
the author of the following essay has learned much from Rorty, he
disputes Rortyâ–“s conflation of Nabokov, an optimist, with Freud, a
pessimist. To this end, ⌠Varieties of Determinism■explores the
intellectual divide separating Nabokov from Freud by contrasting their
divergent attitudes on determinism as said attitudes relate to art and
science. The essay also seeks to explain why, in the context of his own
project, Rorty makes the mistake of conflating two disparate figures in
the first place. From there, the essay turns to a fourth writer,
Jean-Paul Sartre. Another of Nabokovâ–“s bĐştes-noires, Sartre is
appropriate to this discussion insofar as his attitudes toward
determinism resemble Nabokov▓s in key respects. In sum, ⌠Varieties of
Determinism■builds on ⌠The Barber of Kasbeam■by placing its comments
into sharper focus and by extending its discussion of Nabokovâ–“s
metaphysical optimism into new areas: the scientism of Freud, the
existentialism of Sartre, and the pragmatism of Rorty himself.
Elena Sommers
The ⌠Right■versus the ⌠Wrong■Child: Shades of Pain in Bend Sinister
and Pnin
Trying to determine why Bend Sinister goes into such excruciating detail
in its portrayal of violence against the most vulnerable, the article
will analyze the means by which Nabokov communicates the most
language-resistant phenomenon--the intense physical pain of another. The
article will show how the writer deconstructs the process of torture in
order for the reader to then reconstruct it in his imagination, the
result of which is a literal, physical feeling of pain. Continuously
upsetting the readerâ–“s world, in Bend Sinister Nabokov transforms a
nanny, a nurse and a female doctor, the figures traditionally associated
with nurturing and mothering, into the members of a fine-tuned murder
team. Followed by a curious reader, the trio of the Bachofen sisters
(Mariette, Linda and Doktor Amalia) carefully and professionally carries
out specifically assigned roles in the torture and murder of the
eight-year-old David. The article will discuss the figure of Arvid Krug,
⌠somebody else▓s child,■⌠the wrong boy,■and its significance in
Nabokovâ–“s challenge to the readerâ–“s compassion.
David Galef
Nabokov in Fat City
Nabokov loved the casual abundance he found in America, but he also
disliked its vulgarity and felt conflicted about this split. This
ambivalence is revealed in his attitude toward the flesh, both his own
and his charactersâ–“.
Marina von Hirsch
The Presence of Nabokov in Bitovâ–“s Ficion:
Bitov and Nabokov, Bitov on Nabokov, Nabokov in Bitov
This essay explores the existence of an exclusive and complex literary
relationship between Andrei Bitov and Vladimir Nabokov, whom Bitov
considers to be his closest spiritual antecedent. This relationship
originated at the very start of Bitov's career, and since then has found
numerous reflections in Bitov's densely intertextual fictional and
discursive texts. These texts can be classified into four major
categories: 1) commentaries to various works that synthesize fictional
and critical discourse, among which the "Commentary" to Pushkin House
stands out as the most informative example; 2) fictional texts with
references and allusions to Nabokov; 3) discursive texts dedicated
specifically to Nabokov; and 4) miscellaneous interviews and texts that
mention Nabokov. Inquiry into some of these texts written by Bitov
reveals extraordinary affinities--stylistic, linguistic, thematic, and
philosophical--with Nabokov.
Savely Senderovich and Yelena Shvartz
The Juice of Three Oranges: An Exploration of Nabokovâ–“s Language and
World
This study presents a reconstruction of the workings of Vladimir
Nabokov's language. Nabokov should be read not only on the level of
narrative, but perhaps most plausibly on the level of recurrent motifs,
contiguous allusions, and favorite verbal games. Reading on the
micro-level and across his texts allows us to detect key motifs and to
recognize the contours of different and more profound stories told
within the surface stories. The context in which the orange motif
acquires its Nabokovian meaning can be briefly defined as the fairground
booth, the balagan, an overarching metaphor for the world within which
all of Nabokov's stories take place. The balagan implies a false,
unnatural and imposed life in which one is forced to play a prescribed
role; only an artist, a creator, may stage his own spectacle, performing
dazzling acrobatics, disavowing the heaviness of matter, and reaching
celestial heights. The tension between these two aspects as expressed
through the grotesque is the principal creative force in the world of
the balagan. All Nabokov's novels and many short stories and plays make
use of the orange motif dating back to Meyerhold's staging of Blok's
Balaganchik in the Tenishev school in 1914 and Carlo Gozzi's The Love
for Three Oranges, as well as to the magazine of the same title
(1914-16). Concepts of Russian avant-garde theater, especially those of
Blok, Meyerhold and Evreinov, are at the core of Nabokov's conception
of the balagan, which seems to constitute the encompassing inner
horizon of his world.
Samuel Schuman
Hyperlinks, Chiasmus, Vermeer and St. Augustine: Models of Reading Ada
In response to R. J. A. Kilbourn's essay "Ada in Chaismus: Chiasmus in
Ada, (NS 5), I offer a complementary, rather than contradictory model.
Kilbourn proposes reading the novel either from the center out to the
beginning and ending, or from the two ends into the middle. My
suggestion is that Nabokov seeks in the reader a mirror of his own
Augustinian omniscience, wherein the whole, and all its parts, are
apprehended simultaneously. Obviously, this strategy demands, in the
real world, multiple re-readings. I suggest that as the reader
approaches this omniscience, she or he moves ever closer to the position
of textual divinity assumed by the author.
Liana Ashenden
Adaâ–“s Erotic Entomology
Nabokov incorporates the natural world and natural science to a greater
extent in Ada than in any other novel except The Gift. Ada Veen is an
avid lepidopterist and botanist and her scientific interest drives the
memoirâ–“s extensive biological content. Van Veen, by contrast, focuses
humorously on the sexual connotations of insects and flowers (which are
associated in his memory with Ada and the intense excitement of early
sexual awakening). Indeed, the Ardis sections of the memoir almost
embody in perverse literal form what Kinbote in Pale Fire describes as
"the lust that Nature, the grand cheat, puts into us to inveigle us into
propagation" (621). The extent to which Adaâ–“s biological stories parody,
reflect and counterpoint the human plot is astonishing; yet readers must
pursue the offered glimpses of natural detail in order to uncover the
intricate motifs and patterns involving insects in the incestuous
relationships of the Veens.
Kurt Johnson
Recognizing Nabokovâ–“s Legacy in Science:
Where We Are Today, Where We Go From Here
Nabokov's accomplishments in science are reviewed and assessment made of
the direction of future scholarly interest in his work. Because
Nabokov's 1940s seminal work on blue butterflies ("blues") of the world
was not continued by others until the 1990s, the breadth of his
accomplishments has only been recently recognized. Nabokov was a pioneer
anatomist, originating many now standard anatomical terms and methods.
He was one of the first lepidopterists to study the entire genital
apparatus of butterflies in both sexes, consider North American
butterflies in terms of worldwide relationships, argue for a balanced
biological and morphological species definition, seek a genealogical
approach to classification, stress the importance of life cycle and
ecological studies in evaluating species, and opine that biogeographic
assumptions of his day seemed unsupported by anatomical studies of
blues. All Nabokov's taxonomic works reflect these interests and
expertise but his seminal studies of Latin American blues, where he
contributed nearly the entire classification still used today, are the
hallmark of his achievement. Modern DNA studies of North American blues
support Nabokov's conclusions; DNA studies of his Latin American blues
are in progress. Future interest in Nabokov's scientific work will most
likely focus on assessing his theoretical and philosophical views and
appreciating the multidisciplinary element of his intellect.
Brian Boyd
Azure Afterthoughts: Reflections on Nabokovâ–“s Pale Fire
Many responses to Nabokov's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery
drew attention to suggestive particulars in Pale Fire whose purpose I
here try to ascertain. There are details and designs still to be traced
at every phase of reading Pale Fire: a first reading (the A-Z pattern,
which may also indicate the key role of Hazel that I proposed in NPF);
rereading (a "Botkin" implied in the "catkin" evoked but eschewed late
in the poem; implications hidden in place-names like Kobaltana or in
personal names like Sylvia O'Donnell); and re-rereading (the echo of
"The Vane Sisters" in the Vanessa at the end of Shade's poem and his
life; the scene starring Gordon, the boy from whom Gradus recoils but
whom the king has clearly possessed, as an ironic variation on the
pattern of women spurned; the echo of Pope's "distant northern land" in
the last three words of the Index).
---------------------------------------
REVIEWS
Gavriel Shapiro: Delicate Markers: Subtexts in N's Invitation to a
Beheading. By Stephen Blackwell
Christine Raguet-Bouvart: Vladimir Nabokov: La Poetique du masque. By
Jeff Edmunds.
Maxim D. Shrayer: The World of Nabokov's Stories. By Galya Diment.
Stephen Blackwell: Zina's Paradox: The Figured Reader in N Gift. By
Paul Morris.
Kurt Johnson & Stephen Coates: Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey
of a Literary Genius. By Robert Dirig.
Dieter Zimmer: A Guide to Nabokov's Butterflies and Moths 2001. By
Brian Boyd.
Brian Boyd. Nabokokv's Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery. By
Charles Nicol.
Julian Connolly, ed. Nabokov and his Fiction: New Perspectives. By
Michael Wood.
David Andrews. Aestheticism, Nabokov and Lolita. By Chriastian Hunt.
The Centennial Omnibus. By Zoran Kuzmanovich