Bouchet, Marie, Julie Loison-Charles, and Isabelle Poulin, eds. The Five Senses in Nabokov's Works. 2020

Abstract This collection of essays focuses on a subject largely neglected in Nabokovian criticism—the importance and significance of the five senses in Vladimir Nabokov’s work, poetics, politics and aesthetics. This text analyzes the crucial role of the author’s synesthesia and multilingualism in relation to the five senses, as well as the sensual and erotic dimensions of sensoriality in his works. Each chapter provides a highly focused and sometimes provocative approach to the unique role that sensory perceptions play in the shaping and narrating of Nabokov’s memories and in his creative process. Table of Contents Marie Bouchet, Julie Loison-Charles and Isabelle Poulin: ‘Do the Senses Make Sense?’: An Introduction PART I - The Role of the Senses in Nabokov’s Aesthetics and Metaphysics Brian Boyd: Senses, Minds, Meanings and Value in Nabokov: Do the Senses Make Sense? Lilla Farmasi: ‘To breathe the dust of this painted life’: Modes of Engaging the Senses in Vladimir Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading Michael Rodgers: Nabokov’s Visceral, Cerebral and Aesthetic Senses Lyudmila Razumova: Developing Transnational Style: Particularities of Nabokov’s Lexicon and Cognitive Frames in The Gift in Relation to the Five Senses PART II - Crossing Sensations and Languages: Multilingualism, Memory and Intermediality Damien Mollaret: An Eden of Sensations: The Five Senses in Speak, Memory Yannicke Chupin: A Look at the Spectropoetics of Photography in Nabokov’s fiction Susan Elizabeth Sweeney: Visual Agnosia in Nabokov: When One of the Senses Can’t Make Sense Julie Loison-Charles: Translating Taste and Switching Tongues Isabelle Poulin: Translation as Craft and Heroic Deed: On the Political Stakes of a Multilingual Sensoriality PART III - Senses and the Body: from Pleasure to Displeasure Maurice Couturier: Sensuality and the Senses in Nabokov Julian W. Connolly: The ‘Eyes’ Have It: The Pleasures and Problems of Scopophilia in Nabokov’s Work Suzanne Fraysse: The carmen in Nabokov’s Lolita Anastasia Tolstoy: ‘I’d Like to Taste the Inside of Your Mouth’: The Mouth as Locus of Disgust in Nabokov’s Fiction PART IV - Synesthesia and Multisensoriality Jean-Michel Hupé: An Introduction to Synesthesia Via Vladimir Nabokov Marie Bouchet: Neurological Synaesthesia vs Literary Synaesthesia: Can Nabokov Help Bridge the Gap? Sabine Metzger: Undulations and Vibrations, Tonalities and Harmonies: Nabokov, Acoustics and the Otherworld Kiyoko Magome: Vladimir Nabokov’s Musico-Literary Microcosm: “Music” and Nabokov’s Quartet Léopold Reigner: 'Tactio has come of age’: the Tactile Sense in Nabokov’s Lolita, Pale Fire and Ada Nathalia Saliba Dias: Embodied Memories in Ada, or Ardor and Speak, Memory Lara Delage-Toriel: ‘A Tactile Sensation is a Blind Spot’: Nabokov’s Aesthetics of Touch