Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011015, Wed, 9 Feb 2005 19:29:17 -0800

Subject
Re: Fwd: Banville and Nabokov
Date
Body
Although I did not notice Nabokovian echoes in "Shroud", the earlier companion
novel, "Eclipse", has a clear reference to "Lolita" and perhaps other Nabokov
works. There is a Lolita-like girl (although no pedophilia) and a ghost plot
that has parallels to certain theories about Hazel Shade's role in "Pale Fire."

For what it's worth, in interviews Banville has acknowledged Nabokov's
influence.

Tom Walker

Quoting "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>:

> ----- Forwarded message from mmillea@ifone.com -----
> Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 18:57:20 -0000 (GMT)
> From: Michael Millea <mmillea@ifone.com>
>
>
>
> Here is Nabokov-de Man link. Nabokov left Cornell in January 1959, and
> Paul de Man, with his newly minted Harvard doctorate, was hired by Cornell
> in 1960. Since de Man was a former Nazi and the author of a number of
> shrill, trashy anti-Semitic diatribes, Nabokov, whose views on
> anti-Semitism are well known, probably would have thought he left Cornell
> at just the right time.
>
> Although I've never come across any evidence that Nabokov was even aware
> of de Man, two of his creations, Professor Hagen and Bodo Falternfels,
> give some indication that he must have bumped into similar postwar
> flotsam.
>
> Michael
>
> > Andrew - you may be right there, though I just read a review and
> > apparently the critic (?) Paul de Man was part-inspiration for the
> > narrator. I wonder if there is a Nabokov-de Man link. That would be an
> > interesting connection.
> >
> > Brian Howell

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