Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0027473, Tue, 22 Aug 2017 16:05:10 +0000

Subject
Re: Pale Fire and the Tri-partite Man
Date
Body
Mary Ross,
I want to encourage you to continue pursuing this line of thought re: Jung. You are right to note VN's competitive streak--that is, his desire to recycle and transform the ideas and works of other writers and thinkers, great and small. I have always felt that part of his hatred for Freud (and this may apply to Jung as well) came from the fact that Freud was occupying many of the same spaces where VN liked to dwell. VN's objection was not so much to Freud's mythology as to his imposing it on everyone else, and we see repeatedly in his novels an attempt, usually through satire, to show how ridiculous and even dangerous Freud becomes when imposed indiscriminately on the general populace. So the question you will need to answer is this: if, as you say, Jungian ideas infuse PF, why might VN have put them there. Was it simply a matter of competition (I can do it better), an attempt to create a better version of an old idea (like we see with his attempts to best Stevenson and Dostoevsky)? Was he trying to apply Jung in order to ridicule him (as I argue he was doing with Freud in Lolita and PF)? Or was he earnestly but secretly using Jungian theory to develop the mythology of PF? Perhaps there are other possibilities, as well. In any case, I hope you will pursue this until you find an answer that satisfies this question of "why."

All the best,
Matt Roth

-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Mary Ross
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2017 3:00 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Pale Fire and the Tri-partite Man

Sam Gwynn, I feel I could respond better to your comment, without getting too deeply at this point into how I see Sybil and the anima playing out.

If I understand, your comment seems to be, "how can it be a tri-part man if there is a 4th part?"

The three parts have to do with three levels of consciousness: unconscious, conscious and super-conscious. The Shadow and the Anima are actually both part of the unconscious, as are other archetypes, including the Senex.

In alchemy, Mercurius, usually seen as negative, like the Shadow, has multiple aspects that include the many different archetypes, including a feminine aspect and a Senex aspect. Still, Jung separates out the spiritual:

“If we are to do justice to the essence of the thing we call spirit, we should really speak of a ‘higher’ consciousness rather than of the unconscious, because the concept of spirit is such that we are bound to connect it with the idea of superiority over the ego-consciousness.” (Jung, CW,Vol.8, P.335)

In his likening of alchemy to the psychological process of Individuation, the anima is not an ingredient, like sulphur, salt and mercury, but is an aspect of the process - the union of opposites (called the "coniunctio", or "heiros games" or "chymical wedding") We can see this theme in the Nabokov and Shade marriages.

The theme of opposites, mirror images, etc. runs through Nabokov's work and was also a central concern of Jung's:

“I have often discussed this problem with the late Prof. Paulai, who was also fascinated by what he called the mirror-reflection, causing the existence of two worlds which are really united in the speculum, the mirror, that is lying in the middle” (Jung, Letters Vol.II, P.469)

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