Bouchet, Marie, Julie Loison-Charles, and Isabelle Poulin. "Do the Senses Make Sense?’: An Introduction. 2020

The introduction to the collection of essays situates the volume within nabokovian scholarship, and highlights its originality, as the five senses’ importance in Nabokov’s poetics, aesthetics, ethics and politics has not been studied on such a scale. It notably recalls the unique role that sensory perceptions play in the shaping and telling of Nabokov’s memories, and in his creative process. The crucial significance of the author’s synesthesia and of his multilingualism in relation to the five senses is also underscored, as well as the sensual and erotic dimensions of sensoriality in Nabokov’s works. The introduction briefly presents and situates the essays composing the collection within these themes, and comments upon their complementarity and their respective scope.