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Re: Nabokov & [the] Poe[etesque]? (fwd)
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From: Susan Elizabeth Sweeney <sweeney@holycross.edu> -----------------
Hi,
everybody. In a recent essay I compared Poe's "William Wilson," just
cited by Jeff Farmer, to Nabokov's THE EYE and DESPAIR. My essay is
called "'Subject-Cases' and 'Book-Cases': Impostures and Forgeries from
Poe to Auster," and it appeared in a book that I coedited with Patricia
Merivale, DETECTING TEXTS: THE METAPHYSICAL DETECTIVE STORY FROM POE TO
POSTMODERNISM (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999). I agree with Jeff
that "William Wilson" is a wonderful and very Nabokovian story. Lucy
Maddox, Dale Peterson, and others have done work on Poe and Nabokov.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
English Department
Holy Cross College
<<< Donald Barton Johnson <chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu> 9/20 2:13p >>>
af369@acorn.net
Donald Barton Johnson <chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu> wrote:
>In return for the recommendation [of Lee Siegel's Love in a Dead
>Language], I ask only that you share a favorite "Nabokovesque" title with
>me and NABOKV-L.
"I long, in passing through the dim valley, for the sympathy--I had nearly
said for the pity--of my fellow men. I would fain have them believe that I
have been in some measure, the slave of circumstances beyond human control.
I would wish them to seek out for me, in the details I am about to give,
some little oasis of _fatality_ amid a wilderness of error."
In this narrative, a depraved character is mocked, shadowed, and thwarted
by a mysterious double. Humbert Humbert and Clare Quilty? No, William
Wilson and his namesake in Poe's story with the same name.
Having suggested that a work of Poe is Nabokovesque, it seems only fair to
ask what works (what other works, besides LOLITA, in whole or part) of
Nabokov might be described as Poelike.
Jeff Farmer
Hi,
everybody. In a recent essay I compared Poe's "William Wilson," just
cited by Jeff Farmer, to Nabokov's THE EYE and DESPAIR. My essay is
called "'Subject-Cases' and 'Book-Cases': Impostures and Forgeries from
Poe to Auster," and it appeared in a book that I coedited with Patricia
Merivale, DETECTING TEXTS: THE METAPHYSICAL DETECTIVE STORY FROM POE TO
POSTMODERNISM (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999). I agree with Jeff
that "William Wilson" is a wonderful and very Nabokovian story. Lucy
Maddox, Dale Peterson, and others have done work on Poe and Nabokov.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
English Department
Holy Cross College
<<< Donald Barton Johnson <chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu> 9/20 2:13p >>>
af369@acorn.net
Donald Barton Johnson <chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu> wrote:
>In return for the recommendation [of Lee Siegel's Love in a Dead
>Language], I ask only that you share a favorite "Nabokovesque" title with
>me and NABOKV-L.
"I long, in passing through the dim valley, for the sympathy--I had nearly
said for the pity--of my fellow men. I would fain have them believe that I
have been in some measure, the slave of circumstances beyond human control.
I would wish them to seek out for me, in the details I am about to give,
some little oasis of _fatality_ amid a wilderness of error."
In this narrative, a depraved character is mocked, shadowed, and thwarted
by a mysterious double. Humbert Humbert and Clare Quilty? No, William
Wilson and his namesake in Poe's story with the same name.
Having suggested that a work of Poe is Nabokovesque, it seems only fair to
ask what works (what other works, besides LOLITA, in whole or part) of
Nabokov might be described as Poelike.
Jeff Farmer