Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002538, Mon, 3 Nov 1997 08:34:58 -0800

Subject
VN BIbliography (fwd)
Date
Body
From: JOHN BURT FOSTER <jfoster@osf1.gmu.edu>

Single works by Nabokov, or specific aspects of his career are often
treated in books on broad topics of one kind or another. These discussions
sometimes go unnoticed if Nabokov's name does not appear in the sub-title.
Here are two recent examples.
Gene H. Bell-Villada treats Nabokov's American career as initiating
a new phase of aestheticism that followed the New Criticism in ART FOR ART'S
SAKE AND LITERARY LIFE: HOW POLITICS AND MARKETS HELPED SHAPE THE IDEOLOGY
AND CULTURE OF AESTHETICISM, 1790-1990 (Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1996).
Though critical of aestheticism, he does have interesting observations about
both LOLITA and PALE FIRE.
Mihai Spariosu has a chapter called "Allegory, Power, and the
Postmodern Game of Interpretation: Nabokov, Lowry, Orwell" in THE WREATH OF
WILD OLIVE: PLAY, LIMINALITY, AND THE STUDY OF LITERATURE (State U of New
York P, 1997). The chapter focuses on PALE FIRE, and argues for a "ludic-
irenic" interpretation of the book which follows neither a typically modernist
nor a typically poststructuralist approach.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

John Foster
English / George Mason University
Email Address: "jfoster@gmu.edu"