Exploring the deeply translational and transnational nature of the writings of Vladimir Nabokov, this book argues that all his work is unified by the permanent presence of three cultures and languages: Russian, English and French. In particular, Julie Loison-Charles focusses on Nabokov's dual nature as both an author and a translator, and the ways in which translation permeates his fictional writing from his very first Russian works to his last novels in English.
Although self-translation has received a lot of attention in Nabokov criticism, this book considers his work as an author-translator, drawing particular attention to his often underappreciated and underestimated, but no less crucial, third language French. Looking at Nabokov's encounters with pseudotranslation, Julie Loison-Charles demonstrates the influence this had on his practice as both a translator and a writer, arguing that this experience was crucial to his ability to create bridges between the literary traditions of Europe, Russia and America. The book also triangulates his practice and theory of translation for Onegin with those of Chateaubriand and Venuti to illuminate Nabokov's transnational vision of literature and his ethics of translation before presenting a robust case for reconsidering his collaborative translations in French as mediated self-translations.
Vladimir Nabokov as an Author-Translator can be purchased on the publisher's website.
Introduction
PART I. Nabokov and Pseudotranslation
1. At the Crossroads of Translation and Literature
2. Intertextual Links between Pseudotranslations and Nabokov's Work
3. Translating Pseudotranslations
4. Nabokov's Pseudotranslations
5. Are Nabokov's Novels in English 'Pseudotranslations'?
PART II. Nabokov and the Author Behind the Translator
6. Vladimir Nabokov's Translation Theory for Eugene Onegin
7. Eugene Onegin, a Translation into Nabokovese?
8. Investigating Nabokov's Literalism, from Chateaubriand to Venuti
9. Nabokov's Eugene Onegin, or the Reshaping of the Russian Canon in the World Republic of Letters
PART III. Nabokov as a French Self-Translator
10. Collaborative Translation as Mediated Self-Translation
11. Nabokov and his Collaborators
12. Nabokov's Creative Involvement in French
13. Should Nabokov Be Retranslated?
Conclusion
References
Index
Comments