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Re: RES: [NABOKV-L] [Fwd: Death in Nabokov's Works]
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Eric Hyman: Jansy is quite right to call attention to the short stories. Beyond the obvious "Vane Sisters" there is also "Details of a Sunset," a story that needs to be solved like a chess problem. I won't give away the key move here but it does involve consciousness after death.
JM: A great many were written in Russian, while Nabokov was under the sway of Russian culture and the prevailing beliefs at that period.
They a good point of departure when we want to compare his later developments to see how his ideas about "the other world" changed and became less general and more personal.
There are puzzling points when I read comments about "ghosts" in Nabokov's work. Quite often these ghosts seem to gain life outside literature and speak directly to the person (who is also a reader.) Extra-textual ghosts?
Nabokov, of course, is always serious even when he is building a satire: he is expressing real emotions, experiences, fears. One should distinguish when he writes on "ghosts of madness" (hallucinations and delusional constructions), or "literary ghosts or ploys," and "synchronicities or coincidences", "links and bobolinks", real "correlated patterns" artistically registered - unexplained experiences which serve to indicate that not everything is totally understood or rendered clear by Western science. Nabokov also describes different fantasies about the "hereafter". His conception about "eternity" is never totally convergent. There are different Nabokovian paradises, hells and eternities. When one uses these words at times it is necessary to state one's textual point of departure to highlight their idiosyncrasies. Intermediares between mankind and gods are equally important ( Hermes, Iris, Seraphs, Prophets. devils)
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JM: A great many were written in Russian, while Nabokov was under the sway of Russian culture and the prevailing beliefs at that period.
They a good point of departure when we want to compare his later developments to see how his ideas about "the other world" changed and became less general and more personal.
There are puzzling points when I read comments about "ghosts" in Nabokov's work. Quite often these ghosts seem to gain life outside literature and speak directly to the person (who is also a reader.) Extra-textual ghosts?
Nabokov, of course, is always serious even when he is building a satire: he is expressing real emotions, experiences, fears. One should distinguish when he writes on "ghosts of madness" (hallucinations and delusional constructions), or "literary ghosts or ploys," and "synchronicities or coincidences", "links and bobolinks", real "correlated patterns" artistically registered - unexplained experiences which serve to indicate that not everything is totally understood or rendered clear by Western science. Nabokov also describes different fantasies about the "hereafter". His conception about "eternity" is never totally convergent. There are different Nabokovian paradises, hells and eternities. When one uses these words at times it is necessary to state one's textual point of departure to highlight their idiosyncrasies. Intermediares between mankind and gods are equally important ( Hermes, Iris, Seraphs, Prophets. devils)
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/