Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0010934, Sun, 16 Jan 2005 21:36:11 -0800

Subject
Fwd: Re: Kinbote as a social exile
Date
Body
Although I disagree with some of their conclusions about Kinbote's
personality (particularly the deliberate or unconscious tendency to
found its problems in a psychoanalytical conception of the human
intelligence), Ellen Pifer (_Nabokov and the Novel_, Harvard UP, 1980)
and Lucy Maddox (_Nabokov's Novels in English_, Univ. of Georgia, 1983)
do discuss seriously and substantially Kinbote's psychological
problems, on the assumption that he is lonely as a result.

Regards,
Nick Ragaz


On Jan 15, 2005, at 7:53 PM, Donald B. Johnson wrote:

> For my AP English class, I am writing a research paper on V.N.
> Everything
> we write needs to be based on research, or at least the words of a
> credible source.
>
> I've gotten to the point at which I discuss Kinbote's status as an
> exile,
> which, as most of us know, has two aspects. First, whether he is
> Kinbote
> or Botkin (never mind the Shadean theory for the moment), he does seem
> to
> be an exile or an emigre from some foreign country. He is clearly not
> an
> American. But I am more interested in talking about his
> loneliness--his
> social exile, on a smaller scale, as a result of his flagrant
> narcissism,
> homosexuality, and insanity. I know that to most critics, amateur and
> professional alike, it is practically a given that Kinbote has been,
> for
> much of his life, ostracized--but I do need to find a source to cite,
> anyway.
>
> If anyone could point me to a source that discusses this even briefly,
> or
> if one of the credible sources who reads this could write up a short
> post
> about it, the help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> --Alice
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----

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