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[NABOKOV-L] Sigmund and Signy, forgetting names and Signorelli
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Just one initial investigation from "Ada" (related to "Dr Froid, one of the administerial centaurs, who may have been an émigré brother with a passport-changed name of the Dr Froit of Signy-Mondieu-Mondieu in the Ardennes or, more likely, the same man, because they both came from Vienne, Isère, and were only sons (as her son was), evolved, or rather revived, the therapistic device..."), spurred on by Steven Norquist's note to the List for its wording reminded me of a specific article by Freud, related to Nabokov's alterations of Freud's name.
In the referred article we learn that, while chatting with a fellow train passenger in Herzegovina (keeping Trafoi in the back of his mind,) Sigmund Freud wanted to mention a series of frescoes he'd recently seen in Orvietto, but the name of the artist escaped him. Only Boltraffio and Boticelli occurred to him. The report of the chain of associations which were simultaneously misleading him and holding onto his repressed ideas (death and impotence) will then reveal the mechanism of unconscious distortions (metaphor/metonimy, displacement/condensation) behind his forgetfulness. Only after a long probing was Freud able to recover the name: Signorelli (Lucca) and the illustrations ("Last Judgement").*
If Nabokov has read Freud (in German, as sometimes it is asserted) he must have been interested in the Viennese's special articles on memory and forgetting. The Signorelli article is one of this lot. When playing with Freud's name, Froid or Froit, now linked to Signy ** Mondieu-Mondieu, perhaps Nabokov had in his mind the German designation of "Our Lord" (Mon Dieu, Mon Signeur), "Mein Gott, mein Herr" and the convoluted story of Signorelli. He may have intended to satirize the mechanism of distortion and at the same time, report or play with it...
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* NB: Please, check the listed references for precisa data, since my report relies only in my recollection of it.
- Classics in the History of Psychology -- Freud (1901) Chapter 1 - Sigmund Freud (1901) Translation by A. A. Brill (1914) .... (d) I can no longer conceive the forgetting of the name Signorelli as an accidental occurrence
PEP Web - Freud's Different Versions Of Forgetting 'Signorelli ... - [ Traduzir esta página ]
de M Billig - 2000 - The author examines Freud's three written accounts of his forgetting of the name 'Signorelli'. The three texts-a letter to Fliess, an early scientific ... www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=ijp.081.0483a
**- instead of Sigmund Freud. Cf. the hero in Norse legends, Sigmund, who together with his sister Signy, murdered her children and begat a son, Sinfjötli. When Sinfjötli had grown up, he and Sigmund murdered Signy's husband Siggeir. (Rape Crisis Online Encyclopedia / Incest /Wiki )
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In the referred article we learn that, while chatting with a fellow train passenger in Herzegovina (keeping Trafoi in the back of his mind,) Sigmund Freud wanted to mention a series of frescoes he'd recently seen in Orvietto, but the name of the artist escaped him. Only Boltraffio and Boticelli occurred to him. The report of the chain of associations which were simultaneously misleading him and holding onto his repressed ideas (death and impotence) will then reveal the mechanism of unconscious distortions (metaphor/metonimy, displacement/condensation) behind his forgetfulness. Only after a long probing was Freud able to recover the name: Signorelli (Lucca) and the illustrations ("Last Judgement").*
If Nabokov has read Freud (in German, as sometimes it is asserted) he must have been interested in the Viennese's special articles on memory and forgetting. The Signorelli article is one of this lot. When playing with Freud's name, Froid or Froit, now linked to Signy ** Mondieu-Mondieu, perhaps Nabokov had in his mind the German designation of "Our Lord" (Mon Dieu, Mon Signeur), "Mein Gott, mein Herr" and the convoluted story of Signorelli. He may have intended to satirize the mechanism of distortion and at the same time, report or play with it...
......................................................................................................................................................................................................
* NB: Please, check the listed references for precisa data, since my report relies only in my recollection of it.
- Classics in the History of Psychology -- Freud (1901) Chapter 1 - Sigmund Freud (1901) Translation by A. A. Brill (1914) .... (d) I can no longer conceive the forgetting of the name Signorelli as an accidental occurrence
PEP Web - Freud's Different Versions Of Forgetting 'Signorelli ... - [ Traduzir esta página ]
de M Billig - 2000 - The author examines Freud's three written accounts of his forgetting of the name 'Signorelli'. The three texts-a letter to Fliess, an early scientific ... www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=ijp.081.0483a
**- instead of Sigmund Freud. Cf. the hero in Norse legends, Sigmund, who together with his sister Signy, murdered her children and begat a son, Sinfjötli. When Sinfjötli had grown up, he and Sigmund murdered Signy's husband Siggeir. (Rape Crisis Online Encyclopedia / Incest /Wiki )
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/