Subject
Fw: revised conference abstract: Aleksei Skyarenko. ADA &
Sluchevski
Sluchevski
From
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. The Sklyarenko abstract in yesterday's compilation from the July 2002 VN Symposium in St. Petersburg should be replaced by the following revised version.
----------------------------------------
Russian subtexts in Nabokov's ADA: allusions to the works of Konstantin Sluchevski
Nabokov's Ada or Ardor: a Family Chronicle, probably the most Russian of the author's English novels, abounds with obvious and, particularly, with hidden, allusions to works of Russian literature, many of which have been passed unnoticed. My paper will focus on one of the deepest and most significant Russian subtexts in the novel - the whole layer of multiple allusions to the works of Konstantin Sluchevski (1837-1904), poet and prose writer. I will try to show, what important role those allusions play in the creation of the very reality of Antiterra and the way certain themes and motifs of several Sluchevski's works are used (and fused) in Ada. I will also try to prove that at least two works by Van Veen that are best known to us: his juvenile novel Letters from Terra described in detail and his mature treatise Texture of Time, the text of which is given in full as Chapter Four of Ada, can be traced back to two tales by Sluchevski, Goluboy Platok ("The Blue Shawl") and Professor Bessmertia ("Professor of Immortality"), respectively. The well-recognizable portrait of Nabokov's hero in his old age can be found in one of Sluchevski's short poems.
Finally, I make a sally into another Nabokov's novel, Transparent Things, and propound a hypothesis that a Russian novelist, who makes a fleeting appearance in it, is Sluchevski, and this character's rudimentary novel under the provisional title of Faust in Moscow has been transformed eventually into the above-mentioned tale by Sluchevski "Professor of Immortality".
----------------------------------------
Russian subtexts in Nabokov's ADA: allusions to the works of Konstantin Sluchevski
Nabokov's Ada or Ardor: a Family Chronicle, probably the most Russian of the author's English novels, abounds with obvious and, particularly, with hidden, allusions to works of Russian literature, many of which have been passed unnoticed. My paper will focus on one of the deepest and most significant Russian subtexts in the novel - the whole layer of multiple allusions to the works of Konstantin Sluchevski (1837-1904), poet and prose writer. I will try to show, what important role those allusions play in the creation of the very reality of Antiterra and the way certain themes and motifs of several Sluchevski's works are used (and fused) in Ada. I will also try to prove that at least two works by Van Veen that are best known to us: his juvenile novel Letters from Terra described in detail and his mature treatise Texture of Time, the text of which is given in full as Chapter Four of Ada, can be traced back to two tales by Sluchevski, Goluboy Platok ("The Blue Shawl") and Professor Bessmertia ("Professor of Immortality"), respectively. The well-recognizable portrait of Nabokov's hero in his old age can be found in one of Sluchevski's short poems.
Finally, I make a sally into another Nabokov's novel, Transparent Things, and propound a hypothesis that a Russian novelist, who makes a fleeting appearance in it, is Sluchevski, and this character's rudimentary novel under the provisional title of Faust in Moscow has been transformed eventually into the above-mentioned tale by Sluchevski "Professor of Immortality".