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EDNOTE. NABOKOV STUDIES #7 IS JUST OUT. If you are doing research on
NABOKOV, this journal is essential for you and/or your instition library.
Back issues are alos vailable.
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> > Nabokov Studies Volume 7 is now OUT.. This issue
> > contains several important articles; topics include (among
> > others) Nabokov's sources, his theory of drama, his
> > reception of Freud, and his views on insect mimicry and
> > natural selection. Article abstracts and a list of reviews
> > are below.
> >
> > At 252 pages (with eight pages of illustrations and an
> > elegant two-color cover), Nabokov Studies 7 is the greatest
> > bargain since Olympia offered _Lolita_ at 900 OF.
> > Individual USA Subscriptions are $25.50 per year
> > ($65.00 for three years); overseas subscribers add $4 per
> > volume. Institutional subscriptions are $35.50/year
> > domestic, $39.50/year overseas. Send your check (US Funds
> > please, drawn on a US Bank or a bank with US
> > representation) to Zoran Kuzmanovich, Nabokov Studies,
> > Department of English, Davidson College, Davidson NC 28036.
> > Your check should be made out to NABOKOV STUDIES.
> >
> > ARTICLE ABSTRACTS
> >
> > ZORAN KUZMANOVICH
> > "Just as it was, or perhaps a little more perfect":
> > Notes on Nabokov's Sources
> > Juxtaposing the opening of _The Gift'_s second chapter with
> > _Speak, Memory'_s account of Nabokov's first poem and
> > _Lolita'_s couch scene reveals a surprising set of
> > similarities. A preliminary study of these common points
> > leads to some intriguing linkages and contradictions among
> > Nabokov's roles as writer of fiction, autobiography,
> > self-parody, and criticism. It also provides a new data set
> > to be examined in light of the currently dominant critical
> > paradigm, revises Nabokov's relations to other artists, and
> > may even lead to consequences for his aesthetic theory.
> >
> > DIETER E. ZIMMER AND SABINE HARTMANN
> > The Amazing Music of Truth:
> > Nabokov's Sources for Godunov's Central Asian Travels in
> > _The Gift_
> > In Chapter 2 of his novel _Dar/The Gift_ (1933-38), Nabokov
> > had the protagonist's father undertake the explorative
> > journey to Central Asia that he in his youth would have
> > liked to undertake himself. It now can safely be said that
> > none of the colorful and evocative detail of this imaginary
> > travelogue is invented. To compose it, Nabokov must have
> > closely and carefully studied more than twenty historical
> > sources. Up to now, about 34 percent of the roughly 105
> > "items" that make up his text and that range from single
> > facts to whole paragraphs had been traced to specific
> > sources. This article brings the count up to 92 percent.
> >
> > JOHN WHALEN-BRIDGE
> > Murderous Desire in _Lolita_
> > (With Related Thoughts on Mailer's _An American Dream_)
> > "Murderous Desire in Lolita" considers _Lolita_ as a
> > transgressive fantasy and compares it with Norman Mailer's
> > novel _An American Dream_. Engaging D. A. Miller's arguments
> > from _The Novel and the Police_, the author argues that
> > Mailer and Nabokov are each well aware that they write
> > "under observation" but that each uses narrative
> > contextualization to resist the metaphorical panopticon of
> > literary form.
> >
> > ERIC NAIMAN
> > Perversion in _Pnin_ (Reading Nabokov Preposterously)
> > "Perversion in _Pnin_ (Reading Nabokov Preposterously)"
> > explores the issue of perverse hermeneutics in Nabokov's
> > most innocent novel. After noting the anxieties that
> > surround sexually oriented readings of Nabokov's work, the
> > article argues that _Pnin_ contains a series of genital
> > references, some of which involve a perverse reading of
> > Gertrude's rendition of the scene of Ophelia's drowning. The
> > slandering of Ophelia-embedded, among other places, in the
> > descriptions of a planned parenthood clinic and a Soviet May
> > Day parade-provides a counterpart for the slandering of Pnin
> > by various narrators in the novel. The article contends that
> > in its many images of twisting and winding, the novel
> > thematises the struggle for control over the turns
> > (versions) taken by the narrative. The squirrel, the novel's
> > obviously emblematic beast, should be read as a symbol (or
> > as a familiar) of the necessary pairing of the poetic and
> > the perverse. Central to this argument is the concept of
> > "preposterous oversight"-a phrase that hints at the
> > necessarily perverse and obsessive voyeurism promoted by the
> > novel as the key to its "true understanding" by the reader.
> > The article concludes with the suggestion that the novel
> > transposes the moral question of Ivan Karamazov's
> > theological "revolt" into a metafictive, procedural key.
> >
> > RACHEL TROUSDALE
> > "Faragod Bless Them": Nabokov, Spirits, and Electricity
> > The references to _Anna Karenin_ in _Ada_, which begin in
> > the very first sentence of the book, help to explain the
> > strange goings-on with electricity which occur throughout
> > _Ada_. The absence of electricity from Antiterra indicates a
> > spiritual poverty. Antiterra is hellish not just because of
> > its inhabitants' brutality but because of its utter lack of
> > spirituality, which is replaced by nostalgia and sex. The
> > self-centered, incestuous nature of Van's love affair and
> > his memories ensure that he can neither recapture the past
> > nor create anything new. The failure of Van's paradise and
> > the sterility of his attempt to regain it are encapsulated
> > in the occurrences of electricity in the novel.
> >
> > STEPHEN BLACKWELL
> > Nabokov's Weiner-schnitzel Dreams: _Despair_ and
> > Anti-Freudian Poetics
> > By the time Nabokov composed _Despair_ in mid-1932, he had
> > been nurturing a growing antipathy to Freudian
> > psychoanalysis since emigrating to the West thirteen years
> > prior. After examining the history of Nabokov's probable
> > exposure to Freudian ideas and epigones in Russia, in
> > Cambridge, and in Berlin, the author turns to _Despair_ as
> > the culmination of Nabokov's early anti-Freudian creative
> > activity. Countering Freud's famed "Oedipus complex,"
> > Nabokov fills his novel with mythological and sexual
> > imagery, especially from the myth of Cybele and Attis. In so
> > doing he creates a potential interpretive structure that
> > leads, ultimately, nowhere-except to the demise of his main
> > character, who is also the novel's leading Freudian
> > practitioner. The novel's almost absurd proliferation of
> > phalluses, referring to Freudianism, is undermined by the
> > self-castration theme, which seems to be Nabokov's way of
> > illustrating how a flawed ideology does violence to itself.
> >
> > ANDREY BABIKOV
> > _The Event_ and the Main Thing in Nabokov's Theory of Drama
> > Comparing Nabokov's ideas on drama as expounded in his 1941
> > course on theater with his own dramatic experiments, the
> > author asserts that Nabokov implements the original model of
> > the "dualistic" theater in _The Event_ and _The Waltz
> > Invention_. The article's first part examines _The Event_ as
> > an embodiment of the theater of "secret action," in which
> > the real conflict lies in the opposition of this "secret
> > action" to an external spectacle imposed upon it. In the
> > article's second part, _The Event_ is analyzed from the
> > standpoint of the Nabokovian theater of "the fictive
> > viewer." It then examines Nabokov's polemic with the idea of
> > the monistic ("sobornyi") theater (Viacheslav Ivanov, Fyodor
> > Sologub) which is identified with the fairground booth show
> > (balagan). Finally it explores Nabokov's metaphysical
> > comprehension of the theater principle of "the fourth wall,"
> > which underlies not only his mature playwriting but also his
> > work in other genres (_Invitation to a Beheading_, _Bend
> > Sinister_, "Lik").
> >
> > Victoria N. Alexander
> > NABOKOV, TELEOLOGY, AND INSECT MIMICRY
> > Nabokov argued that a slight resemblance between one insect
> > and another or between an insect and its environment could
> > not be furthered by the function or purpose it served,
> > leading gradually to mimicry. The subtleties of Nabokov's
> > argument against Darwinian gradualism have been missed by
> > most of his readers. He did not critique Darwinism in the
> > same way that Creationists do. Nabokov did believe that
> > natural selection could explain many adaptations and shifts
> > in the direction of evolution, but he did not think it could
> > explain mimicry. He realized there were other forces at work
> > assisting natural selection, which were especially apparent
> > in the case of "mimicry." Recent work in what is called
> > "structural" and "neutral" evolutionary theory supports
> > Nabokov's views, which seem to have been influenced by
> > teleomechanism, a form of theoretical biology derived from
> > Kantian teleology.
> >
> > REVIEWS
> >
> > Nora Buks. _Eshafot v hrustal'nom dvorce.
> > O russkih romanah Vladimira Nabokova_.
> > Reviewed by Magdalena Medaric
> >
> > Ellen Pifer. _Demon or Doll: Images of the Child
> > in Contemporary Writing and Culture_.
> > Reviewed by Sarah Herbold
> >
> > Brian Boyd. _Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness_
> > (Second Edition)
> > Reviewed by Mary Bellino
> >
> > Jane Grayson, Arnold McMillin, and Priscilla Meyer (eds).
> >
> > _Nabokov's World_. Volume 1: The Shape of Nabokov's World;
> > Volume 2: Reading Nabokov.
> > Reviewed by Jenefer Coates
NABOKOV, this journal is essential for you and/or your instition library.
Back issues are alos vailable.
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@cox.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> From: "Mary Bellino" <iambe@rcn.com>
>
> > Nabokov Studies Volume 7 is now OUT.. This issue
> > contains several important articles; topics include (among
> > others) Nabokov's sources, his theory of drama, his
> > reception of Freud, and his views on insect mimicry and
> > natural selection. Article abstracts and a list of reviews
> > are below.
> >
> > At 252 pages (with eight pages of illustrations and an
> > elegant two-color cover), Nabokov Studies 7 is the greatest
> > bargain since Olympia offered _Lolita_ at 900 OF.
> > Individual USA Subscriptions are $25.50 per year
> > ($65.00 for three years); overseas subscribers add $4 per
> > volume. Institutional subscriptions are $35.50/year
> > domestic, $39.50/year overseas. Send your check (US Funds
> > please, drawn on a US Bank or a bank with US
> > representation) to Zoran Kuzmanovich, Nabokov Studies,
> > Department of English, Davidson College, Davidson NC 28036.
> > Your check should be made out to NABOKOV STUDIES.
> >
> > ARTICLE ABSTRACTS
> >
> > ZORAN KUZMANOVICH
> > "Just as it was, or perhaps a little more perfect":
> > Notes on Nabokov's Sources
> > Juxtaposing the opening of _The Gift'_s second chapter with
> > _Speak, Memory'_s account of Nabokov's first poem and
> > _Lolita'_s couch scene reveals a surprising set of
> > similarities. A preliminary study of these common points
> > leads to some intriguing linkages and contradictions among
> > Nabokov's roles as writer of fiction, autobiography,
> > self-parody, and criticism. It also provides a new data set
> > to be examined in light of the currently dominant critical
> > paradigm, revises Nabokov's relations to other artists, and
> > may even lead to consequences for his aesthetic theory.
> >
> > DIETER E. ZIMMER AND SABINE HARTMANN
> > The Amazing Music of Truth:
> > Nabokov's Sources for Godunov's Central Asian Travels in
> > _The Gift_
> > In Chapter 2 of his novel _Dar/The Gift_ (1933-38), Nabokov
> > had the protagonist's father undertake the explorative
> > journey to Central Asia that he in his youth would have
> > liked to undertake himself. It now can safely be said that
> > none of the colorful and evocative detail of this imaginary
> > travelogue is invented. To compose it, Nabokov must have
> > closely and carefully studied more than twenty historical
> > sources. Up to now, about 34 percent of the roughly 105
> > "items" that make up his text and that range from single
> > facts to whole paragraphs had been traced to specific
> > sources. This article brings the count up to 92 percent.
> >
> > JOHN WHALEN-BRIDGE
> > Murderous Desire in _Lolita_
> > (With Related Thoughts on Mailer's _An American Dream_)
> > "Murderous Desire in Lolita" considers _Lolita_ as a
> > transgressive fantasy and compares it with Norman Mailer's
> > novel _An American Dream_. Engaging D. A. Miller's arguments
> > from _The Novel and the Police_, the author argues that
> > Mailer and Nabokov are each well aware that they write
> > "under observation" but that each uses narrative
> > contextualization to resist the metaphorical panopticon of
> > literary form.
> >
> > ERIC NAIMAN
> > Perversion in _Pnin_ (Reading Nabokov Preposterously)
> > "Perversion in _Pnin_ (Reading Nabokov Preposterously)"
> > explores the issue of perverse hermeneutics in Nabokov's
> > most innocent novel. After noting the anxieties that
> > surround sexually oriented readings of Nabokov's work, the
> > article argues that _Pnin_ contains a series of genital
> > references, some of which involve a perverse reading of
> > Gertrude's rendition of the scene of Ophelia's drowning. The
> > slandering of Ophelia-embedded, among other places, in the
> > descriptions of a planned parenthood clinic and a Soviet May
> > Day parade-provides a counterpart for the slandering of Pnin
> > by various narrators in the novel. The article contends that
> > in its many images of twisting and winding, the novel
> > thematises the struggle for control over the turns
> > (versions) taken by the narrative. The squirrel, the novel's
> > obviously emblematic beast, should be read as a symbol (or
> > as a familiar) of the necessary pairing of the poetic and
> > the perverse. Central to this argument is the concept of
> > "preposterous oversight"-a phrase that hints at the
> > necessarily perverse and obsessive voyeurism promoted by the
> > novel as the key to its "true understanding" by the reader.
> > The article concludes with the suggestion that the novel
> > transposes the moral question of Ivan Karamazov's
> > theological "revolt" into a metafictive, procedural key.
> >
> > RACHEL TROUSDALE
> > "Faragod Bless Them": Nabokov, Spirits, and Electricity
> > The references to _Anna Karenin_ in _Ada_, which begin in
> > the very first sentence of the book, help to explain the
> > strange goings-on with electricity which occur throughout
> > _Ada_. The absence of electricity from Antiterra indicates a
> > spiritual poverty. Antiterra is hellish not just because of
> > its inhabitants' brutality but because of its utter lack of
> > spirituality, which is replaced by nostalgia and sex. The
> > self-centered, incestuous nature of Van's love affair and
> > his memories ensure that he can neither recapture the past
> > nor create anything new. The failure of Van's paradise and
> > the sterility of his attempt to regain it are encapsulated
> > in the occurrences of electricity in the novel.
> >
> > STEPHEN BLACKWELL
> > Nabokov's Weiner-schnitzel Dreams: _Despair_ and
> > Anti-Freudian Poetics
> > By the time Nabokov composed _Despair_ in mid-1932, he had
> > been nurturing a growing antipathy to Freudian
> > psychoanalysis since emigrating to the West thirteen years
> > prior. After examining the history of Nabokov's probable
> > exposure to Freudian ideas and epigones in Russia, in
> > Cambridge, and in Berlin, the author turns to _Despair_ as
> > the culmination of Nabokov's early anti-Freudian creative
> > activity. Countering Freud's famed "Oedipus complex,"
> > Nabokov fills his novel with mythological and sexual
> > imagery, especially from the myth of Cybele and Attis. In so
> > doing he creates a potential interpretive structure that
> > leads, ultimately, nowhere-except to the demise of his main
> > character, who is also the novel's leading Freudian
> > practitioner. The novel's almost absurd proliferation of
> > phalluses, referring to Freudianism, is undermined by the
> > self-castration theme, which seems to be Nabokov's way of
> > illustrating how a flawed ideology does violence to itself.
> >
> > ANDREY BABIKOV
> > _The Event_ and the Main Thing in Nabokov's Theory of Drama
> > Comparing Nabokov's ideas on drama as expounded in his 1941
> > course on theater with his own dramatic experiments, the
> > author asserts that Nabokov implements the original model of
> > the "dualistic" theater in _The Event_ and _The Waltz
> > Invention_. The article's first part examines _The Event_ as
> > an embodiment of the theater of "secret action," in which
> > the real conflict lies in the opposition of this "secret
> > action" to an external spectacle imposed upon it. In the
> > article's second part, _The Event_ is analyzed from the
> > standpoint of the Nabokovian theater of "the fictive
> > viewer." It then examines Nabokov's polemic with the idea of
> > the monistic ("sobornyi") theater (Viacheslav Ivanov, Fyodor
> > Sologub) which is identified with the fairground booth show
> > (balagan). Finally it explores Nabokov's metaphysical
> > comprehension of the theater principle of "the fourth wall,"
> > which underlies not only his mature playwriting but also his
> > work in other genres (_Invitation to a Beheading_, _Bend
> > Sinister_, "Lik").
> >
> > Victoria N. Alexander
> > NABOKOV, TELEOLOGY, AND INSECT MIMICRY
> > Nabokov argued that a slight resemblance between one insect
> > and another or between an insect and its environment could
> > not be furthered by the function or purpose it served,
> > leading gradually to mimicry. The subtleties of Nabokov's
> > argument against Darwinian gradualism have been missed by
> > most of his readers. He did not critique Darwinism in the
> > same way that Creationists do. Nabokov did believe that
> > natural selection could explain many adaptations and shifts
> > in the direction of evolution, but he did not think it could
> > explain mimicry. He realized there were other forces at work
> > assisting natural selection, which were especially apparent
> > in the case of "mimicry." Recent work in what is called
> > "structural" and "neutral" evolutionary theory supports
> > Nabokov's views, which seem to have been influenced by
> > teleomechanism, a form of theoretical biology derived from
> > Kantian teleology.
> >
> > REVIEWS
> >
> > Nora Buks. _Eshafot v hrustal'nom dvorce.
> > O russkih romanah Vladimira Nabokova_.
> > Reviewed by Magdalena Medaric
> >
> > Ellen Pifer. _Demon or Doll: Images of the Child
> > in Contemporary Writing and Culture_.
> > Reviewed by Sarah Herbold
> >
> > Brian Boyd. _Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness_
> > (Second Edition)
> > Reviewed by Mary Bellino
> >
> > Jane Grayson, Arnold McMillin, and Priscilla Meyer (eds).
> >
> > _Nabokov's World_. Volume 1: The Shape of Nabokov's World;
> > Volume 2: Reading Nabokov.
> > Reviewed by Jenefer Coates