Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0015444, Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:14:29 -0300

Subject
[TRANS NAB] The subject of the sentence and animate objects
From
Date
Body
Emily Collins sent us her abstract about "Nabokov's animate objects" where she wrote: "Both fetish and portal are problematic: they tend to over-determine the world, leaving no room for the true quiddity of things or people".

I selected the sentence quoted above as a representative of what surprised me in her text.
In the first place, what is "a portal" in literature? ( EC defined it as: "an object which magically transports someone to a different realm", but this seems to stamp it as something operative outside games and sci-fi unlike, say, Pullman's "Subtle Knife" for those that read about it in his novel.);
2. Who animates Nabokov's objects, or are they indeed "animate"? ;
3. How do fetish and portal over-determine the world... leave no room...etc?

Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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







Attachment