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Conference Announcement
The English Department of the University of Strasbourg
“Kaleidoscopic Nabokov”
Critical Retrievals: The State of Nabokov Studies in France
October 17-18, 2008
Keynote speaker: Maurice Couturier (University of Nice)
Organizers: Lara Delage-Toriel and Monica Manolescu
Contact: ldelage@umb.u-strasbg.fr and monica.manolescu@umb.u-strasbg.fr
Conference web page: http://monica.manolescu.free.fr/colloque.html
This interdisciplinary conference, hosted by the English Department of
the University of Strasbourg and its Research Group 2325, aims to
produce
an image of Nabokovian research in France – Nabokov’s French
kaleidoscope – by gathering together those teachers, translators, Ph. D.
students and researchers
from different departments and fields in France (Russian, English,
Comparative Literature) who share an active interest in Nabokov.
The concept of “kaleidoscope” seems to characterize Nabokov in a
particularly appropriate way, since his texts travelled across the 20th
century and the continents, across literary movements (from modernism to
postmodernism) and socio-political history, reflecting the various
facets
of a changing world. Moreover,
Nabokov’s work stands at the crossroads of several domains to which he
devoted himself: writing (novels, short fiction, poetry, drama) and
translation, art history, entomology, chess. Consequently, for every
one of
us, albeit specialists, there lies in shadow an invisible or fleeting
Nabokov, a mysterious and white zone that we long to fathom and which
may
be more easily accessed from other shores – English, Russian, etc.
We shall be inviting all our participants to cross and map the Nabokov
continent, a territory riddled with linguistic contrasts as well as
literary and scientific dualities, “a crazy quilt” – just like the
United States, seen through Humbert’s gaze in Lolita – which challenges
us because of the gamut of
competences it brings into play. For the English specialists, who revel
in
his “second-rate brand of English” (as our author has it in his
afterword to Lolita), the Russian Nabokov is often available only in
translation. For literary scholars, his scientific theories remain
largely
obscure and hermetic.
The guiding topic of this conference is Nabokov’s critical
retrieval by various academic departments and critical trends, but also
through translation and teaching. The concept of retrieval calls to
mind a
whole series of related themes having to do with Nabokov’s place within
various national literatures
(Russian and/or American), to his widely diverging descriptions by
various
critical approaches (Nabokov as a humanist writer in the Russian
tradition,
Nabokov as a stylist who is supremely indifferent
to social issues, Nabokov as a postmodern writer who operates complex
mixtures of genres,
languages and intertexts, Nabokov as a metaphysical writer whose main
theme
would arguably be the survival of
individual consciousness), to the necessarily fragmentary analysis of
his
texts by various departments in France who rarely, if ever, manage to
communicate (Russian, English, Comparative Literature).
Here are some topics that will be considered:
· Nabokov East-West and back: Nabokov as a Russian/American/French
writer?
· Nabokov’s plurilinguistic and multicultural (therefore
interdisciplinary) character
· Nabokov at the crossroads of literary movements/at the crossroads of
literature and science
· Nabokov’s languages: bilingualism and trilingualism
· Teaching Nabokov
· Translating Nabokov, Nabokov as a translator: faithfulness and
betrayal
· In what ways are we conditioned/enriched by our linguistic and
literary academic fields, by the theoretical and critical frameworks
that
are inherently present therein?
· What are the transformations undergone by Nabokov’s critical
reception once his work became part and
parcel of the Russian literary heritage after 1990?
It would probably be naïve to believe that such a kaleidoscopic
gathering might yield the full Nabokov by piecing together his
tessellated
self. Rather than reach a utopian apotheosis,
this conference could bring into relief that which makes each approach
specific and valuable, while pointing towards novel perspectives. Our
intention has been to avoid imposing a theme, hoping that such
latitude would foster as many questions and answers as possible, and
enable
speakers to embark on new grounds, untrammelled by the usual
constraints of
a conference. We cannot expect this conference to
furnish specific answers, but we do hope it will uncover at least a few
precious nuggets towards an understanding of this fundamental question:
“Who is this Nabokov we all hover around? Who is
‘our’ Nabokov?”. This event is a first step towards a broader
itinerary which will encourage various, more or less distant, Nabokovian
research areas to meet and converse – first
in France, then on a European and international scale.
Speakers and titles (the final program will be announced in September):
René Alladaye (University of Toulouse, English department)
On John Banville’s Eclipse (2000) and its Nabokovian intertexts
Marie Bouchet (University of Toulouse, English department)
« Hybridity and Mimicry: Two Notions for A Possible Approach to
Kaleidoscopic Nabokov »
Géraldine Chouard (University of Paris 9, English department)
« Speak, Memory ou le temps des images »
Yannicke Chupin (University of Paris 4, English department)
« Ada ou l’ardeur, une chronique littéraire ou les formes
traditionnelles du roman revisitées »
Maurice Couturier (University of Nice, English department) –opening
lecture
« La Réception de Nabokov en France: Interprétation ou Récupération?
»
Agnès Edel-Roy (University of Paris 3, Russian and Comparative
Literature)
« Vladimir Nabokov aujourd’hui ou ‘la démocratie magique’ »
Alexia Gassin (Université Paris 4, Ph. D. student, Russian department)
« Vladimir Nabokov et le cinéma expressionniste allemand »
Laurence Guy (University of Aix-en-Provence, Russian department)
« Polenka et le demi sourire de la Russie à un jeune barine: une
interprétation junguienne de la nymphette »
Bernard Kreise (Translator Russian-French) – to be confirmed
Anne-Marie Lafont (University Paris 4, Ph. D. student, Russian
department)
« Figure féminine et histoire érotique dans les romans russes de
Vladimir Nabokov »
Déborah Lévy-Bertherat (Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm, Comparative
Literature Department)
« Ecueils de la traversée Est-Ouest : le cas Pnine »
Jean-Paul Luauté (psychiatrist)
« Vladimir Nabokov, doubles et psychopathologie »
Didier Machu (University of Pau, English department)
« Aspects de la décapitation chez Vladimir Nabokov »
Sonia Philonenko (University of Strasbourg, Russian department)
« Vladimir Nabokov traducteur de Lewis Carroll »
Isabelle Poulin (University of Bordeaux, Comparative Literature
department)
« Vladimir Nabokov ‘l’ami de Rabelais’. Enjeux d’une approche
plurilingue de la littérature »
Tatiana Victoroff (University of Strasbourg, Comparative Literature
department)
« Le théâtre de Nabokov : carrefours multiples »
--
Monica Manolescu-Oancea
Maître de conférences
Département d'Anglais
Université Marc Bloch
22 Rue Descartes
67084 Strasbourg
France