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Fwd: Re: Nabokov & Bakhtin
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Stephen Blackwell, in *Zina's Paradox*, makes interesting use of the dialogic in
reading and writing, focusing on Zina's role in the creation of the narrative
as Fyodor's reader and love. He includes a brief section on Tammi's reading of
*The Gift*, as well. Blackwell claims that Nabokov probably read, maybe,
Bahktin because of the review of *Problems*. VN seems to at least have known of
B, according to Blackwell.
As Blackwell also points out, Bahktin's brother, Nikolai Bahktin, was a very
active member of emigre literature and politics, and he held many of the same
views as MB. So VN may have been familiar, in a dialogic way, with MB's
theories.
Leona Toker also has some very interesting readings, focusing on the tension
between the carnivalesque and discrete individualism in N's work, in *The
Mystery of Lit. Structures*.
Even though VN never cited MB, it should be kept in mind that he also didn't
cite many of his sources in his Gogol study.
Aaron
---------------------------------------------------------------
Quoting Alexander Dolinin
> The first edition of Bakhtin's book on Dostoevsky was published in 1929 and
> astutely reviewed by Petr Bitsilli in a 1930 issue of "Sovremennye
> zapiski," side by side with a part of "Luzhin's Defense" and
> Tsetlin's review of "Chorb." This means that Nabokov could have read at
> least Bitsilli's review if not Bakhtin himself. Yet in his unpublished
> 1931 paper on Dostoevsky in which he discussed Marxist, Freudian and
> religious biases in Dostoevsky criticism of the 1920's, Nabokov doesn't
> refer to Bakhtin's theory of so-called "polyphonic novel." As Pekka Tammi
> convincingly argued in his "Problems of Nabokov's Poetics" (Helsinki, 1985,
> 97-101) Nabokov's narrative, in terms of Bakhtinian metaphors, should be
> defined as anti-polyphonic:
> "We may talk of a pronouncedly anti-polyphonic feature in the
> author's writing: an overriding tendency to make explicit the presence of a
> creative consciousness behind every fictive construction." (100)
> Alexander Dolinin
>
>
>
>
> At 09:17 AM 9/25/04 -0700, you wrote:
> >Dear Jansy,
> > I summarized my thoughts about Bakhtin & VN in the EDNOTE to Laufer's
> >posting. I doubt VN knew B's work which surfaced posthumously
> >
> >
> >----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
> > Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 10:28:04 -0300
> > From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> >
> >Dear Don,
> >concerning Mr. Lauffer´s message, I remember having read that Bakthin was an
> >admirer of Dostoevski, who he considered the only real example
> >for poliphonic
> >writing and "dialogism". Therefore, it would be interesting to learn what
> >Nabokov thought about Dostoevski´ s "moral and artistic stupidity" in his
> >"Lectures on Russian Literature" where he analyses four of D.´s novels
> .Would
> >VN himself be familiar with Bakthin´s assesment of Dostoievski?
> >Jansy
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Donald B. Johnson"
> >To:
> >Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 9:00 PM
> >Subject: QUERY: Nabokov and Bakhtin
> >
> >
> > > A quick question:
> > > Many of us find Nabokov Bakhtinian. But did Nabokov read Bakhtin? Know
> > > him? What's the best work on the actual connection between these two?
> >the
> > > documented influence of Bakhtin on Nabokov?
> > >
> > > Thanks for any help,
> > > Matt Laufer
> > >
> > >
> >
> >----- End forwarded message -----
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
----- End forwarded message -----
reading and writing, focusing on Zina's role in the creation of the narrative
as Fyodor's reader and love. He includes a brief section on Tammi's reading of
*The Gift*, as well. Blackwell claims that Nabokov probably read, maybe,
Bahktin because of the review of *Problems*. VN seems to at least have known of
B, according to Blackwell.
As Blackwell also points out, Bahktin's brother, Nikolai Bahktin, was a very
active member of emigre literature and politics, and he held many of the same
views as MB. So VN may have been familiar, in a dialogic way, with MB's
theories.
Leona Toker also has some very interesting readings, focusing on the tension
between the carnivalesque and discrete individualism in N's work, in *The
Mystery of Lit. Structures*.
Even though VN never cited MB, it should be kept in mind that he also didn't
cite many of his sources in his Gogol study.
Aaron
---------------------------------------------------------------
Quoting Alexander Dolinin
> The first edition of Bakhtin's book on Dostoevsky was published in 1929 and
> astutely reviewed by Petr Bitsilli in a 1930 issue of "Sovremennye
> zapiski," side by side with a part of "Luzhin's Defense" and
> Tsetlin's review of "Chorb." This means that Nabokov could have read at
> least Bitsilli's review if not Bakhtin himself. Yet in his unpublished
> 1931 paper on Dostoevsky in which he discussed Marxist, Freudian and
> religious biases in Dostoevsky criticism of the 1920's, Nabokov doesn't
> refer to Bakhtin's theory of so-called "polyphonic novel." As Pekka Tammi
> convincingly argued in his "Problems of Nabokov's Poetics" (Helsinki, 1985,
> 97-101) Nabokov's narrative, in terms of Bakhtinian metaphors, should be
> defined as anti-polyphonic:
> "We may talk of a pronouncedly anti-polyphonic feature in the
> author's writing: an overriding tendency to make explicit the presence of a
> creative consciousness behind every fictive construction." (100)
> Alexander Dolinin
>
>
>
>
> At 09:17 AM 9/25/04 -0700, you wrote:
> >Dear Jansy,
> > I summarized my thoughts about Bakhtin & VN in the EDNOTE to Laufer's
> >posting. I doubt VN knew B's work which surfaced posthumously
> >
> >
> >----- Forwarded message from jansy@aetern.us -----
> > Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 10:28:04 -0300
> > From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello <jansy@aetern.us>
> >
> >Dear Don,
> >concerning Mr. Lauffer´s message, I remember having read that Bakthin was an
> >admirer of Dostoevski, who he considered the only real example
> >for poliphonic
> >writing and "dialogism". Therefore, it would be interesting to learn what
> >Nabokov thought about Dostoevski´ s "moral and artistic stupidity" in his
> >"Lectures on Russian Literature" where he analyses four of D.´s novels
> .Would
> >VN himself be familiar with Bakthin´s assesment of Dostoievski?
> >Jansy
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Donald B. Johnson"
> >To:
> >Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 9:00 PM
> >Subject: QUERY: Nabokov and Bakhtin
> >
> >
> > > A quick question:
> > > Many of us find Nabokov Bakhtinian. But did Nabokov read Bakhtin? Know
> > > him? What's the best work on the actual connection between these two?
> >the
> > > documented influence of Bakhtin on Nabokov?
> > >
> > > Thanks for any help,
> > > Matt Laufer
> > >
> > >
> >
> >----- End forwarded message -----
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----
>
----- End forwarded message -----