Subject
THOUGHTS: Buttons on the Left
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Abraham Adams writes:
My friend recently pointed out that the female narrator of "A Slice of Life"
(the only female narrator in all of VN's work) sounds distinctly masculine
or at best a very masculine imagining of what feminine thought might be
like: describing herself 'curled up' in "cheek-propped feminine thought". I
found an article that describes such moments as her 'pretenses' at
femininity to distinguish herself from the "male homosocial bonding" that
surrounds and rejects her (Nakata, Akiko. "An Agent Narrating: Nabokov's "A
Slice of Life""Journal of Nanzan Junior College 24(1997): 1-16).
It reminds me of "The Admiralty Spire", a letter to a writer that the
narrator recognizes as female despite a male pseudonym: "every sentence of
yours buttons to the left".
Whether one takes "A Slice of Life" to be written poorly or be poor
narration written well, do these stories both not seem to betray some
contempt for the idea of women as writers? Nabokov did insist on male
translators, and Eric Naiman's article on sexual orientation in Nabokov,
which I have mentioned on this list before, poses a specifically male
homosexual relation between author and reader. I imagine there are more
interesting responses to this pattern of naive female narration than to
leave it at concluding VN was a misogynist, though that is perhaps true as well.
[EDNOTE. Also note that The Real Life of Sebastian Knight praises Claire Bishop for the "strong, almost masculine quality" of her imagination" (p. 83). -- SES]
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My friend recently pointed out that the female narrator of "A Slice of Life"
(the only female narrator in all of VN's work) sounds distinctly masculine
or at best a very masculine imagining of what feminine thought might be
like: describing herself 'curled up' in "cheek-propped feminine thought". I
found an article that describes such moments as her 'pretenses' at
femininity to distinguish herself from the "male homosocial bonding" that
surrounds and rejects her (Nakata, Akiko. "An Agent Narrating: Nabokov's "A
Slice of Life""Journal of Nanzan Junior College 24(1997): 1-16).
It reminds me of "The Admiralty Spire", a letter to a writer that the
narrator recognizes as female despite a male pseudonym: "every sentence of
yours buttons to the left".
Whether one takes "A Slice of Life" to be written poorly or be poor
narration written well, do these stories both not seem to betray some
contempt for the idea of women as writers? Nabokov did insist on male
translators, and Eric Naiman's article on sexual orientation in Nabokov,
which I have mentioned on this list before, poses a specifically male
homosexual relation between author and reader. I imagine there are more
interesting responses to this pattern of naive female narration than to
leave it at concluding VN was a misogynist, though that is perhaps true as well.
[EDNOTE. Also note that The Real Life of Sebastian Knight praises Claire Bishop for the "strong, almost masculine quality" of her imagination" (p. 83). -- SES]
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/