Subject
On symmetry
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Off-list, Dave Haan argued that symmetry in Nabokov could be "a set-up,
red
herring, something to falsify by the telling detail and so undermine
allegory. Not teleological, but denying that formal properties can in
and
of themselves encompass meaning -- I think there's some VN disagreement
with
Roman Jakobson here -- structure aiming to be paradoxical rather than
paradigmatic. Something like the value of tries in chess problems: not
a
solution but a means of better appreciating the solution."
My intuitive, non-academic argument, would insist on the idea that VN
valued
and employed symmetry in different ways and with distinct aims.
The hypothesis that it could be a set-up against allegory makes sense if
one
remembers VN's frank distaste for it ( along with what he considered a
"Freudian symbolism"...).
I think that formal properties can express meaning in rare special
occasions
while retaining paradoxical qualities.I wonder if anyone who agrees with
me
could find examples in VN's Russian poetry or in his prose?
Jansy
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red
herring, something to falsify by the telling detail and so undermine
allegory. Not teleological, but denying that formal properties can in
and
of themselves encompass meaning -- I think there's some VN disagreement
with
Roman Jakobson here -- structure aiming to be paradoxical rather than
paradigmatic. Something like the value of tries in chess problems: not
a
solution but a means of better appreciating the solution."
My intuitive, non-academic argument, would insist on the idea that VN
valued
and employed symmetry in different ways and with distinct aims.
The hypothesis that it could be a set-up against allegory makes sense if
one
remembers VN's frank distaste for it ( along with what he considered a
"Freudian symbolism"...).
I think that formal properties can express meaning in rare special
occasions
while retaining paradoxical qualities.I wonder if anyone who agrees with
me
could find examples in VN's Russian poetry or in his prose?
Jansy
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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