Subject
VN vs. Freud (fwd)
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From: Icrywolf@aol.com
As an undergraduate becoming acquainted for the first time with contemporary
psychoanalytic literary criticism, I have been recently subjected to what I
can only describe as a whole lot of Freud. I have gleaned from Nabokov's
writings that he is not too fond of Mr. Freud, and in fact that he has a
certain loathing for Freudian psychoanalysis on the whole. Not having read
_Speak, Memory_ or his collected _Lectures_, I'm wondering what Nabokov has
said explicitly about this influential figure, and where the roots of his
dislike lie. As my professor has said, "to disagree with Freud is to lose the
ability to say anything meaningful at all." I tend to trust Nabokov over my
professor, but need some ammunition in the debate against Freudian analysis.
Along with this topic, I wonder how Nabokov's views on Freud fit in with
some of his more "Freudian" oriented novels, such as _Lolita_. It would seem
that writing a book with pedophilia as a central theme would be quite
difficult without saying -something- Freud would agree with. Since I don't
have the time to pursue this on my own (Lacan and Fish are keeping me quite
busy), I turn on the good graces of my fellow Nabokovians to explain all or
some of this topic to me.
Sincerely,
CJM, The Colorado College
As an undergraduate becoming acquainted for the first time with contemporary
psychoanalytic literary criticism, I have been recently subjected to what I
can only describe as a whole lot of Freud. I have gleaned from Nabokov's
writings that he is not too fond of Mr. Freud, and in fact that he has a
certain loathing for Freudian psychoanalysis on the whole. Not having read
_Speak, Memory_ or his collected _Lectures_, I'm wondering what Nabokov has
said explicitly about this influential figure, and where the roots of his
dislike lie. As my professor has said, "to disagree with Freud is to lose the
ability to say anything meaningful at all." I tend to trust Nabokov over my
professor, but need some ammunition in the debate against Freudian analysis.
Along with this topic, I wonder how Nabokov's views on Freud fit in with
some of his more "Freudian" oriented novels, such as _Lolita_. It would seem
that writing a book with pedophilia as a central theme would be quite
difficult without saying -something- Freud would agree with. Since I don't
have the time to pursue this on my own (Lacan and Fish are keeping me quite
busy), I turn on the good graces of my fellow Nabokovians to explain all or
some of this topic to me.
Sincerely,
CJM, The Colorado College