Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0018597, Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:25:24 -0300

Subject
Re: [Query] [THOUGHT] E.Wilson, Freud, Nabokov
From
Date
Body
PS: I didn't mean to imply that the reader ought to choose bt. either the "apparitionist view" or the "psychoanalytic explanation for hallucinations", in PF, or to various other items. My intention has been to suggest that, should he have read E. Wilson's 1934/38 essay, Nabokov might have deliberately tried to foil this line of interpretation, by introducing similar issues as a parody, creating a protective smoke-screen, or leaving matters undecided, thereby enhancing the "ambiguity" described in connection to Henry James. Wilson also describes a resource similar to Kinbote's - as an "unreliable narrator": "there are two separate things to be kept straight: a false hypothesis which the narrator is putting forward and a reality which we are supposed to guess from what he tells us about what actually happens" *

* he is here referring to "The Sacred Fount"
........................................................................................
----- Original Message -----
From: jansymello
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:57 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] [Query] [THOUGHT] E.Wilson, Freud, Nabokov


Off-List, James Twiggs observed, qua E.Wilson's "The Ambiguity of Henry James" ("The Triple Thinkers", Penguin, 1962) in relation to JM's
query: [I always felt that Nabokov's rejection of Freud was too repeated, emotional and emphatic, but I was unable to place his off-key mood...Nabokov might have been acquainted with "Wilson's Freud", beside his own reading experience.This might explain the special "strain" in VN's mockery and rejection of the Viennese...?] that:
"Although--as I think you'll agree--it contains the elements of Freudianism that VN objected to, the essay contains much else besides. It's a very rich piece of work, in my opinion, and one that has justly provoked much high-level discussion over the course of the last 70 or so years. Here's a link to a full-blown treatment of the essay and some of its critics: http://turnofthescrew.com/ch3.htm " [...]

Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en

Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com

Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/







Attachment