JM: "Did Hoffmann
manage to reconcile the "unreal intimations" he transformed into
fiction, with "real life" events, did he merge life, fiction and
Art? No, garantees Paul de Man. Yes, opines Jean Starobinski...
Did Nabokov?" (SF's narrator confesses that "were I a writer, I should
allow only my heart to have imagination, and for the rest rely upon memory,
that long-drawn sunset shadow of one's personal truth." ... "I felt myself
bound to seek for a rational, if not moral interpretation of my
existence, and this mean choosing between the world in which I sat for my
portrait, with my wife... between that happy, wise and good world... and
what?" )
Related to the question above (merging
life and Art) I found an indication about a possible discussion on this
theme by V.Khodasevich. I don't have access to his text, I wonder if a kind soul can send me a
copy? *
Khodasevich, Vladislav: "On Sirin" [1937]. TriQuarterly (Evanston, IL), 17, Winter 1970, pp.
96-101.
..............................................................................................................................
* The brief quote comes from "A face russa
de Nabókov: poética e tradução." (2010)
.