Subject
VN as anti-Symbolist
From
Date
Body
[EDNOTE. This is an abstract (by author Michael Glynn) of a 14000-word
article on VN as anti-Symbolist just published in the European Journal
of American Culture. -- SES]
European Journal of American Culture
Volume 25 Issue 1
Abstracts from Articles in this Issue:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
'The word is not a shadow. The word is a thing' - Nabokov as anti-
Symbolist
Michael Glynn (Plymouth College of Further Education)
This article seeks to counter a contemporary critical orthodoxy that
presents Nabokov as a transcendental or Symbolist writer. This Symbolist
version of Nabokov has been promoted by such eminent Nabokovians as
Brian
Boyd and D. Barton Johnson but is a reading that perhaps misrepresents
the
man and his work. I suggest that Nabokov's early poetic output manifests
an anti-Symbolist impulse and proceed to argue that his fundamental
epistemology was anti-Symbolist. This antipathy is starkly revealed when
we consider Nabokov's attitude to language: for the Symbolist, the word
was a barrier that interposed itself between man and ultimate reality.
The
Symbolist imagination was therefore intent upon finessing a limited and
limiting language so that it became capable of adumbrating the
ineffable.
To this end, the Symbolists seized upon the verbal symbol which was
prized
for its obliquity and its transcendent potential. To value the word as
symbol, however, was in Nabokov's view to detract from the intrinsic
value
of both word and world and I suggest instead that Nabokov enjoyed an
epistemological affinity with Russian Formalism. I conclude the article
by
arguing that in his Lolita, Nabokov seeks to explore the pernicious
effects of symbolatry.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
article on VN as anti-Symbolist just published in the European Journal
of American Culture. -- SES]
European Journal of American Culture
Volume 25 Issue 1
Abstracts from Articles in this Issue:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
'The word is not a shadow. The word is a thing' - Nabokov as anti-
Symbolist
Michael Glynn (Plymouth College of Further Education)
This article seeks to counter a contemporary critical orthodoxy that
presents Nabokov as a transcendental or Symbolist writer. This Symbolist
version of Nabokov has been promoted by such eminent Nabokovians as
Brian
Boyd and D. Barton Johnson but is a reading that perhaps misrepresents
the
man and his work. I suggest that Nabokov's early poetic output manifests
an anti-Symbolist impulse and proceed to argue that his fundamental
epistemology was anti-Symbolist. This antipathy is starkly revealed when
we consider Nabokov's attitude to language: for the Symbolist, the word
was a barrier that interposed itself between man and ultimate reality.
The
Symbolist imagination was therefore intent upon finessing a limited and
limiting language so that it became capable of adumbrating the
ineffable.
To this end, the Symbolists seized upon the verbal symbol which was
prized
for its obliquity and its transcendent potential. To value the word as
symbol, however, was in Nabokov's view to detract from the intrinsic
value
of both word and world and I suggest instead that Nabokov enjoyed an
epistemological affinity with Russian Formalism. I conclude the article
by
arguing that in his Lolita, Nabokov seeks to explore the pernicious
effects of symbolatry.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archive/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu