Subject
TEXNABSTRACT:Pierson
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Criticism of Nabokov's fiction often speakes to the surreal or
dreamlike quality of his narrative. Critics focus on doubling, mirroring,
doubles among the tetxs and parallels within them. However, the
description of these coincidences is not enough: it is important to show
that this quality is effected and what it means.
I posit in my work that Nabokov's texts are all the same
text--similar in the sense that they are located in and describe the same
"world" or environment. This world, a fluid, limbic medium, is the realm
of pure conciousness Nabokov describes in SPEAK, MEMORY. It is a fully
articulated reality which the author believes is, in a sense, more real
than the tangible world it is supposed to reflect or comment on.
Ingeniously, Nabokov has fashioned a reality which makes the material
world a commentary on or a response to fiction. In this way Nabokov
redefines fiction, its place in the world, and the reader's place in the
book and the world while reading.
Just as Nabokov claims his first moment of consciousness (when he
recognized his parents who had lived before him) is dependent on other
people and his connections with them, so the creation of Nabokov's
fictive realities is dependent upon a particular type of interaction
among his characters. Nabokov's standard male protagonist usually effects
events in the plot through a quest for a romantic connection (this is true
even in INVITATION TO A BEHEADING in which Cincinnatus C. becomes the
"bride" of his jailer). Through the protagonist's perversion of his own
desire, the novel and thus the fictive reality is created. In this way
Nabokov allows the characters' quest for reality, their involvement with
the world, to subsume their desire for love. Their search for the
unreality of romance becomes replaced by the reality of fiction.
Although much of Nabokov's writing exemplifies this pattern, this
paper focuses specifically on THE EYE, THE GIFT, GLORY, BEND SINISTER,
ADA, and LATH. N. Katherine Hayle's THE COSMIC WEB, Couturier's
discussion of hypertexte and autotexte, Genette's PALIMPSESTES, and
Harbison's ECCENTRIC SPACES are used to describe the scientific and
linguistic methods of fashing new realities more real than the tangible
world.
dreamlike quality of his narrative. Critics focus on doubling, mirroring,
doubles among the tetxs and parallels within them. However, the
description of these coincidences is not enough: it is important to show
that this quality is effected and what it means.
I posit in my work that Nabokov's texts are all the same
text--similar in the sense that they are located in and describe the same
"world" or environment. This world, a fluid, limbic medium, is the realm
of pure conciousness Nabokov describes in SPEAK, MEMORY. It is a fully
articulated reality which the author believes is, in a sense, more real
than the tangible world it is supposed to reflect or comment on.
Ingeniously, Nabokov has fashioned a reality which makes the material
world a commentary on or a response to fiction. In this way Nabokov
redefines fiction, its place in the world, and the reader's place in the
book and the world while reading.
Just as Nabokov claims his first moment of consciousness (when he
recognized his parents who had lived before him) is dependent on other
people and his connections with them, so the creation of Nabokov's
fictive realities is dependent upon a particular type of interaction
among his characters. Nabokov's standard male protagonist usually effects
events in the plot through a quest for a romantic connection (this is true
even in INVITATION TO A BEHEADING in which Cincinnatus C. becomes the
"bride" of his jailer). Through the protagonist's perversion of his own
desire, the novel and thus the fictive reality is created. In this way
Nabokov allows the characters' quest for reality, their involvement with
the world, to subsume their desire for love. Their search for the
unreality of romance becomes replaced by the reality of fiction.
Although much of Nabokov's writing exemplifies this pattern, this
paper focuses specifically on THE EYE, THE GIFT, GLORY, BEND SINISTER,
ADA, and LATH. N. Katherine Hayle's THE COSMIC WEB, Couturier's
discussion of hypertexte and autotexte, Genette's PALIMPSESTES, and
Harbison's ECCENTRIC SPACES are used to describe the scientific and
linguistic methods of fashing new realities more real than the tangible
world.