Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004366, Tue, 7 Sep 1999 09:36:18 -0700

Subject
Oleg Mikhailov and the return of VN to Russia
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. See my response at bottom.
--------------------------
On Tue, 7 Sep 1999, Heather Dunwoody wrote:

> Dear Sir,
>
At the moment I
> am finishing up a Master's thesis on Lolita and was just re-reading an
> email which pointed
> out the ambivalance felt by many Russians for Nabokov.
> 'Mixalov accomplished the rather remarkable feat of publishing an essay on
> Nabokov entitled "Vernost" in the conservative, national journal_Nash
> Sovremennik_ in 1974 - long before public discussion of Nabokov was
> permitted.
>
> What I would like to know is when exactly public discussion of Nabokov was
> permitted.
>
> Thanking you in advance.
>
> Claire Dunwody


--------------------------
EDITOR's RESPONSE
To: Heather Dunwoody <hdunwoody@clubi.ie>

The first "official" recognition of VN in Russia was Mikhailov's
(and Chertkov's) short entry in the Kratkaya literaturnaya entsiklopedia
(Concise Literary Encyclopedia) in 1965; then OM's "Vernost'" [Fidelity
or Loyalty] in the journal _Nash sovremennik_ in Jan. 1974. The flood
gates really opened in 1988 with the stories and novels themselves.
A good general refence is Aleksei Zver'ev's essay "Literary
Return to Russia" in THE GARLAND COMPANION TO VLADIMIR NABOKOV, ed.
Vladimir Alexandrov (1995). The COMPANION is the basic reference for any
Nabokv research.
Best,

P.S. There was, of course, much discussion of VN and his smuggled-in work
among the literary intelligentsia from the early 60s on. Ellendea Proffer
describes this in the TriQuarterly issue devoted to VN's 70th birthday.

D. Barton Johnson
Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
Phelps Hall
University of California at Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
Home Phone: (805) 682-4618