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A Report on the Nabokov Seminar ⌠Nabokov 101■in St
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Date
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EDITOR's NOTE. Kumi Mori, the author of the essay below was among the
students attending "Nabokov 101" at the Petersburg Nabokov Museum last
summer. NABOKV-L thanks her for permission to "reprint" her account
which first appeared in "Krug," the newsletter of the Nabokov Society
of Japan. We also thank Shoko Miura for providing her English
translation. Information about NABOKOV 101 in summer 2002 may be found
at Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/nsintro.htm>.
Tatyana Ponomareva, Director of NABOKOV 101 may be reached at
<azint@mail.wplus.net>.
P.S. A photograph of the visiting butterfly mentioned by the author may
also be found at ZEMBLA, along with pictures of the house-museum.
---------------------------------
A Report on the Nabokov Seminar ⌠Nabokov 101■ in St. Petersburg
By Kumi Mori
Krug Vol. III, No. 1 (November 2001), pp. 10-12.
St. Petersburg, Russia, is a beautiful city full of historical and
literary shadows even today. Houses lining its streets often have plates
announcing, for example, that ⌠Dostoevsky lived in this house from 18≈to
18≈.⌠ Or, even without such signs, many of the buildings tell of the
lives of writers and poets of Russia▓s past. Today, ordinary people
actually live in the house where Dostoevsky used to live. You almost
feel as if Pushkin or Dostoevsky would appear around the corner under
the still-pale skies of the city▓s night.
Vladimir Nabokov▓s birthplace is at No. 47 Bol▓shaya Morskaya, in
the heart of St. Petersburg. It is a three-story house of rose-colored
brick, and the upper stories display a beautiful mosaic design. The
second floor houses the editorial offices of St. Petersburg▓s local
newspaper, Nevskoye Vremya, but the first floor is open to the public as
the Nabokov Museum.
For nine days, from August 3 to November 9, the Second
International Nabokov Seminar, ⌠Nabokov 101,■ was held. The first
seminar, held last year, was a pilot program for students from German
universities, so that this year▓s seminar was the first to be open to
participants from all over the world. 10 participants, from Italy,
Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Russia and Japan attended the seminar.
There were graduate students majoring in Russian literature and writing
their theses on Nabokov, like me, and Russian literature scholars and
professors, but some were also earnest readers of Nabokov▓s works in
English.
The two professors of this year▓s seminar were D. B. Johnson and A.
Dolinin. Every day, Prof. Johnson taught from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and,
after a 30-minute coffee break, Prof. Dolinin taught from 12 to 1:30
p.m. Prof. Johnson▓s seminar consisted mainly of reading parts from his
book, Worlds in Regression, which is a classic in Nabokov studies, and
his essays in Nabokov Studies, followed by discussions and
question-and-answer sessions. Some of the readings may have been
familiar to a few of us, but Prof. Johnson▓s mild manner of speech and
sincere interest in even our least essential questions and comments
encouraged us. The other class conducted by Prof. Dolinin followed an
⌠open■ method, pursuing Nabokov▓s texts as inspiration led us. Prof.
Dolinin▓s thesis was that Nabokov created new meaning out of the
interaction of various motifs repeated within his prose, just as rhyme
interacts with rhyme in poetry. Stories such as ⌠Lik,■ ⌠Spring in
Fialta,■ and ⌠A Slice of Life■ were given as texts for us to puzzle out.
The Nabokov 101 participants were all true Nabokophiles and knew his
works thoroughly. Passionate debates continued between and after classes
on other works as well.
After lunch, optional tours were conducted every afternoon. The
first day (August 3, Friday), Tatyana Ponomalyova acted as interpreter
and guide to the area around the Nabokov Museum. We strolled by the
River Neva to Nevsky Boulevard and back to the house≈the walk that
Luzhin took, except that it was the reverse route that he had feared. We
were aware that these were also the streets that Nabokov himself walked
countless times as a child.
On August 4, we were guided through the Nabokov Museum. In Russia,
hardly anything which could be called Nabokov▓s personal belongings has
remained, so that all we could see were the empty rooms with only the
ceiling giving us an idea of the original house. But we felt privileged
to be shown some precious possessions of the museum, such as several
books which had belonged to the Nabokov family, some first publications
of his works, the jacket and shoes (extremely large) which he had worn
in his last years, his glasses, and the pencil stub and cards he had
used to write Ada. Among the most precious was the book on butterflies
belong to his father. Vladimir had apparently colored the illustrations
as a child, and we found the signature ⌠coulored by W. Nabokov■ inside
the cover. Even his misspelling was Nabokovian. The ⌠ou■ spelling was
probably influenced by his French, while his initial ⌠W■ told of his
German≈a proof of his multilingual boyhood. At any rate, we couldn▓t
help smiling at the imagined face of VN at four or five signing his name
with a dead-serious face on his father▓s precious book.
On August 5, we went on a bus to see Rozhdestveno and Vyra, the
rural family estates that provide the setting for so many of Nabokov▓s
works and the mainspring of his memory of Russia. We went on August 7 to
see the Tenishev School and the home of Valentina Shulgin, the model for
Mashenka, and on other days visited the house that served as the setting
for Dostoevsky▓s Crime and Punishment, the Museum of Literature called
the ⌠Pushkin House■ and the Russian Museum to see art. Everywhere we
were treated with special attention as Nabokov scholars invited by the
Nabokov Museum. For example, we were given special permission to see a
part of the Nabokov family library at the Russian National Library.
The room where our seminar was held was the original study and
library of the Nabokovs on the first floor of the house. In recent
years, Nabokov has ⌠returned■ to Russia as a Russian author. But even he
could not have imagined that after almost a hundred years, this room
where he had read his books would be the setting for his passionate
readers to sit around a table to study and debate on his works.
On the first day of the seminar, a butterfly flew in through our
window. It rested its black wings with lace-like frills on the wall. We
found out that it was a species called the Peacock Butterfly, Inachis Io
or Vanessa Io. The next day, it was still there, and flew around us as
if in play. When Olga, the curator, offered her hand, it rested there.
When Olga touched its wings gently, it spread its wings two or three
times as if blinking, and showed us a glimpse of its elegant dark brown
eye-marks on the inside. We looked at each other and whispered that it
must be Nabokov▓s spirit metamorphozed into his favorite butterfly.
On August 11, after the seminar ended, we were each given a
certificate. Thus ended nine full days of Nabokov. His soul in winged
form must have been satisfied with our endeavors, for we found it
gone≈into the streets of St. Petersburg where the spirits of writers
dwell.
students attending "Nabokov 101" at the Petersburg Nabokov Museum last
summer. NABOKV-L thanks her for permission to "reprint" her account
which first appeared in "Krug," the newsletter of the Nabokov Society
of Japan. We also thank Shoko Miura for providing her English
translation. Information about NABOKOV 101 in summer 2002 may be found
at Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/iasweb/nabokov/nsintro.htm>.
Tatyana Ponomareva, Director of NABOKOV 101 may be reached at
<azint@mail.wplus.net>.
P.S. A photograph of the visiting butterfly mentioned by the author may
also be found at ZEMBLA, along with pictures of the house-museum.
---------------------------------
A Report on the Nabokov Seminar ⌠Nabokov 101■ in St. Petersburg
By Kumi Mori
Krug Vol. III, No. 1 (November 2001), pp. 10-12.
St. Petersburg, Russia, is a beautiful city full of historical and
literary shadows even today. Houses lining its streets often have plates
announcing, for example, that ⌠Dostoevsky lived in this house from 18≈to
18≈.⌠ Or, even without such signs, many of the buildings tell of the
lives of writers and poets of Russia▓s past. Today, ordinary people
actually live in the house where Dostoevsky used to live. You almost
feel as if Pushkin or Dostoevsky would appear around the corner under
the still-pale skies of the city▓s night.
Vladimir Nabokov▓s birthplace is at No. 47 Bol▓shaya Morskaya, in
the heart of St. Petersburg. It is a three-story house of rose-colored
brick, and the upper stories display a beautiful mosaic design. The
second floor houses the editorial offices of St. Petersburg▓s local
newspaper, Nevskoye Vremya, but the first floor is open to the public as
the Nabokov Museum.
For nine days, from August 3 to November 9, the Second
International Nabokov Seminar, ⌠Nabokov 101,■ was held. The first
seminar, held last year, was a pilot program for students from German
universities, so that this year▓s seminar was the first to be open to
participants from all over the world. 10 participants, from Italy,
Germany, the U.S., the U.K., Russia and Japan attended the seminar.
There were graduate students majoring in Russian literature and writing
their theses on Nabokov, like me, and Russian literature scholars and
professors, but some were also earnest readers of Nabokov▓s works in
English.
The two professors of this year▓s seminar were D. B. Johnson and A.
Dolinin. Every day, Prof. Johnson taught from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and,
after a 30-minute coffee break, Prof. Dolinin taught from 12 to 1:30
p.m. Prof. Johnson▓s seminar consisted mainly of reading parts from his
book, Worlds in Regression, which is a classic in Nabokov studies, and
his essays in Nabokov Studies, followed by discussions and
question-and-answer sessions. Some of the readings may have been
familiar to a few of us, but Prof. Johnson▓s mild manner of speech and
sincere interest in even our least essential questions and comments
encouraged us. The other class conducted by Prof. Dolinin followed an
⌠open■ method, pursuing Nabokov▓s texts as inspiration led us. Prof.
Dolinin▓s thesis was that Nabokov created new meaning out of the
interaction of various motifs repeated within his prose, just as rhyme
interacts with rhyme in poetry. Stories such as ⌠Lik,■ ⌠Spring in
Fialta,■ and ⌠A Slice of Life■ were given as texts for us to puzzle out.
The Nabokov 101 participants were all true Nabokophiles and knew his
works thoroughly. Passionate debates continued between and after classes
on other works as well.
After lunch, optional tours were conducted every afternoon. The
first day (August 3, Friday), Tatyana Ponomalyova acted as interpreter
and guide to the area around the Nabokov Museum. We strolled by the
River Neva to Nevsky Boulevard and back to the house≈the walk that
Luzhin took, except that it was the reverse route that he had feared. We
were aware that these were also the streets that Nabokov himself walked
countless times as a child.
On August 4, we were guided through the Nabokov Museum. In Russia,
hardly anything which could be called Nabokov▓s personal belongings has
remained, so that all we could see were the empty rooms with only the
ceiling giving us an idea of the original house. But we felt privileged
to be shown some precious possessions of the museum, such as several
books which had belonged to the Nabokov family, some first publications
of his works, the jacket and shoes (extremely large) which he had worn
in his last years, his glasses, and the pencil stub and cards he had
used to write Ada. Among the most precious was the book on butterflies
belong to his father. Vladimir had apparently colored the illustrations
as a child, and we found the signature ⌠coulored by W. Nabokov■ inside
the cover. Even his misspelling was Nabokovian. The ⌠ou■ spelling was
probably influenced by his French, while his initial ⌠W■ told of his
German≈a proof of his multilingual boyhood. At any rate, we couldn▓t
help smiling at the imagined face of VN at four or five signing his name
with a dead-serious face on his father▓s precious book.
On August 5, we went on a bus to see Rozhdestveno and Vyra, the
rural family estates that provide the setting for so many of Nabokov▓s
works and the mainspring of his memory of Russia. We went on August 7 to
see the Tenishev School and the home of Valentina Shulgin, the model for
Mashenka, and on other days visited the house that served as the setting
for Dostoevsky▓s Crime and Punishment, the Museum of Literature called
the ⌠Pushkin House■ and the Russian Museum to see art. Everywhere we
were treated with special attention as Nabokov scholars invited by the
Nabokov Museum. For example, we were given special permission to see a
part of the Nabokov family library at the Russian National Library.
The room where our seminar was held was the original study and
library of the Nabokovs on the first floor of the house. In recent
years, Nabokov has ⌠returned■ to Russia as a Russian author. But even he
could not have imagined that after almost a hundred years, this room
where he had read his books would be the setting for his passionate
readers to sit around a table to study and debate on his works.
On the first day of the seminar, a butterfly flew in through our
window. It rested its black wings with lace-like frills on the wall. We
found out that it was a species called the Peacock Butterfly, Inachis Io
or Vanessa Io. The next day, it was still there, and flew around us as
if in play. When Olga, the curator, offered her hand, it rested there.
When Olga touched its wings gently, it spread its wings two or three
times as if blinking, and showed us a glimpse of its elegant dark brown
eye-marks on the inside. We looked at each other and whispered that it
must be Nabokov▓s spirit metamorphozed into his favorite butterfly.
On August 11, after the seminar ended, we were each given a
certificate. Thus ended nine full days of Nabokov. His soul in winged
form must have been satisfied with our endeavors, for we found it
gone≈into the streets of St. Petersburg where the spirits of writers
dwell.