Bibliographic title
Look at the Harlequins!: Nabokov's Corpus Compendium
Periodical or collection
Nabokov Online Journal
Periodical issue
v. 2
Publication year
Abstract
The essay examines the author/narrator relationship between Nabokov and Vadim Vadimovich N., and posits that Vadim is a negative paradigm for the ethos of literature that Nabokov espoused in his lectures. Vadim's fainting spell in Part Six exposes him as a writer who cannot "traverse the mirror" of the world of fiction - his writing and his life have a parasitic relationship which robs both of their vibrancy. Vadim's work is reflective and ultimately limiting, as opposed to the refractive and expansive quality that Nabokov felt all good literature must possess.
Internet link