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Re: Fwd: Query: Formalism,Hansen-Löve, Merleau-Ponty
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Dear Don
I don´t know if a very superficial comment on VN might be of interest to
Patrick Flack´s very precise and specific queries. The book that his
question brought to my mind ( concerning the predominance of literary
criticism substituting literature itself ) was read quite a long time ago
and cannot remember much of what it argued. And yet, yesterday, while I was
leafing through it I noted, with astonishment, that I had underlined the
word "multifarious" - employed twice ( in less than three pages) to
describe Nabokov´s work.
Nabokov is only one of several different authors studied and lovingly read.
I refer to Robert Alter´s " The Pleasures of Reading in an ideological age",
WW Norton & Company, NY and London, 1996.
The curious "multifariousness" applied to VN can be found on page 235
("...no passage, of course, can be isolated from the complex tissue of the
work from which it is excised, and Pnin´s squirrel exhibits the same sort of
multifariousness of connections as the Fool´s O without a figure. Squirrels,
real, painted, and stuffed, past and present, abound..." )
and on page 237 ( "the language of literature is centrifugal because, except
in the dullest schematic works, it is never possible to specify definitively
what the center of the text is or what it means. The impossibility is
dictated by the very multifariousness of the text that we have been
contemplating..." )
I suppose Robert Alter´s book is familiar to most American scholars and
therefore I didn´t consider it elligible as a "VN sighting" and the
'multifarious' remained, until today´s posting, just something to underline
with a pencil and add an exclamation mark. Today I thought that it might be
nice to share this information with the list.
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 3:17 PM
Subject: Fwd: Query: Formalism, Hansen-Löve, Merleau-Ponty
EDNOTE. NABOKV-L tahnks Patrick Flack for his query & especially for his
stunning photograph of "Nabokov's" Lake Geneva. I agree that formalism &
structuralism are certainly germane to VN's writing. My acquaintance with
Merleau-Ponty's work is too slight to comment on its utility as an analytic
tool in literary discussion. Can anyone out there comment?
----- Forwarded message from patrick@flack.ch -----
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:50:29 +0100
From: Patrick Flack <patrick@flack.ch>
Dear List,
I'm a student of Russian literature and philosophy at the University of
Geneva, currently finishing my master thesis on the evolution of the
epistemological implications of Nabokov's use of language and literary
structure, from Mashenka to Dar. My main point is that Nabokov's use of
language and literary structure can be fruitfully compared with mature
russian formalist (and czech structuralist, i.e. Jakobson's) ideas,
especially with regard to the ultimate epistemological implications of
the "ostranenie" concept. Obviously, this has been defended before, as
early as Khodasevitch, however it seems to me that more often than not,
comparisons between formalism and Nabokov tend to not do justice to the
former, especially regarding its epistemological qualities, as they tend
to focus on more purely literary aspects. In this regard I have a few
questions:
1- Is my last remark a fair one, and if not, can anybody point out texts
which address formalism and Nabokov from an epistemological perspective?
2- I know of one author that does so, Aage Hansen-Löve, in the
concluding chapters of his remarkable monography on russian formalism
(Der Russische Formalismus..., 1975). My question here is that this book
has only recently been translated in Russian (in 2002 I think) and
previously existed only in German: how aware are Nabokov critics of the
cues given by Hansen-Löve and what influence have his ideas had?
3- Someone mentionned on the list a book by Mihajl Lotman "K voprosu
formalisma Nabokova". I met Prof. Lotman in Prague a few months ago, and
he told me he did not wright on Nabokov and formalism. Who, if anybody,
wrote it then?
4- Russian formalist and czech structuralist epistemology can fruitfully
be compared with the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Consequently, a
comparison between Nabokov and Merleau-Ponty would also seem
interesting. Is there any literature on the subject?
I wish to thank the list for the great help it has been so far, and I
hope, still forthcoming! Pour le plaisir des yeux, I have included a
little photo of Lake Geneva in the evening, taken right in front of
Nabokov's statue in the Montreux Palace's parc.
Thanks for your time,
PF
----- End forwarded message -----
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----- End forwarded message -----
I don´t know if a very superficial comment on VN might be of interest to
Patrick Flack´s very precise and specific queries. The book that his
question brought to my mind ( concerning the predominance of literary
criticism substituting literature itself ) was read quite a long time ago
and cannot remember much of what it argued. And yet, yesterday, while I was
leafing through it I noted, with astonishment, that I had underlined the
word "multifarious" - employed twice ( in less than three pages) to
describe Nabokov´s work.
Nabokov is only one of several different authors studied and lovingly read.
I refer to Robert Alter´s " The Pleasures of Reading in an ideological age",
WW Norton & Company, NY and London, 1996.
The curious "multifariousness" applied to VN can be found on page 235
("...no passage, of course, can be isolated from the complex tissue of the
work from which it is excised, and Pnin´s squirrel exhibits the same sort of
multifariousness of connections as the Fool´s O without a figure. Squirrels,
real, painted, and stuffed, past and present, abound..." )
and on page 237 ( "the language of literature is centrifugal because, except
in the dullest schematic works, it is never possible to specify definitively
what the center of the text is or what it means. The impossibility is
dictated by the very multifariousness of the text that we have been
contemplating..." )
I suppose Robert Alter´s book is familiar to most American scholars and
therefore I didn´t consider it elligible as a "VN sighting" and the
'multifarious' remained, until today´s posting, just something to underline
with a pencil and add an exclamation mark. Today I thought that it might be
nice to share this information with the list.
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2005 3:17 PM
Subject: Fwd: Query: Formalism, Hansen-Löve, Merleau-Ponty
EDNOTE. NABOKV-L tahnks Patrick Flack for his query & especially for his
stunning photograph of "Nabokov's" Lake Geneva. I agree that formalism &
structuralism are certainly germane to VN's writing. My acquaintance with
Merleau-Ponty's work is too slight to comment on its utility as an analytic
tool in literary discussion. Can anyone out there comment?
----- Forwarded message from patrick@flack.ch -----
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:50:29 +0100
From: Patrick Flack <patrick@flack.ch>
Dear List,
I'm a student of Russian literature and philosophy at the University of
Geneva, currently finishing my master thesis on the evolution of the
epistemological implications of Nabokov's use of language and literary
structure, from Mashenka to Dar. My main point is that Nabokov's use of
language and literary structure can be fruitfully compared with mature
russian formalist (and czech structuralist, i.e. Jakobson's) ideas,
especially with regard to the ultimate epistemological implications of
the "ostranenie" concept. Obviously, this has been defended before, as
early as Khodasevitch, however it seems to me that more often than not,
comparisons between formalism and Nabokov tend to not do justice to the
former, especially regarding its epistemological qualities, as they tend
to focus on more purely literary aspects. In this regard I have a few
questions:
1- Is my last remark a fair one, and if not, can anybody point out texts
which address formalism and Nabokov from an epistemological perspective?
2- I know of one author that does so, Aage Hansen-Löve, in the
concluding chapters of his remarkable monography on russian formalism
(Der Russische Formalismus..., 1975). My question here is that this book
has only recently been translated in Russian (in 2002 I think) and
previously existed only in German: how aware are Nabokov critics of the
cues given by Hansen-Löve and what influence have his ideas had?
3- Someone mentionned on the list a book by Mihajl Lotman "K voprosu
formalisma Nabokova". I met Prof. Lotman in Prague a few months ago, and
he told me he did not wright on Nabokov and formalism. Who, if anybody,
wrote it then?
4- Russian formalist and czech structuralist epistemology can fruitfully
be compared with the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Consequently, a
comparison between Nabokov and Merleau-Ponty would also seem
interesting. Is there any literature on the subject?
I wish to thank the list for the great help it has been so far, and I
hope, still forthcoming! Pour le plaisir des yeux, I have included a
little photo of Lake Geneva in the evening, taken right in front of
Nabokov's statue in the Montreux Palace's parc.
Thanks for your time,
PF
----- End forwarded message -----
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----- End forwarded message -----