Subject
Freudian or Nabokovian?
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Date
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Dear Jansy,
What disturbs me about your hypothesis concerning Kinbote and Shade as
"one" came to my attention only quite recently. If Kinbote is a projection
of split off aspects that belong to Shade ( the division could follow other
strands, as you also suggested when connecting them with Stevenson's J&H )
then there would have been no Kinbote outside upsetting the lids of
trash-cans and rapping against the window.
Kinbote does not literally upset trash cans or make jokes with professors
over lunch. These are metaphors for his attempts to make his presence known
to Shade. Remember that his first appearance in America coincides with
Shade's illness ( a heart attack? a stroke?). His emergence as a separate
fully conscious character does not occur until the stroke(s) that turn Shade
into "a tipsy witch" and Shade's subsequent "death." Physically of course
he is not separate.
In that case, John Shade would also be the seducing Erlkönig who carried
Hazel away to her death ( following the hints in Goethe's poem).
I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I do think that Shade was
responsible for driving Hazel and "the other one in ballerina black" to
suicide. Does that qualify as a seducing Erlkönig? I don't know.
Kinbote would also necessarily represent Shade's repressed homosexuality.
Does this appear Nabokovian to you?
Kinbote does represent Shade's repressed homosexuality. Do you mean this is
too "Freudian" to be Nabokovian? I would argue that since Nabokov speculated
that Jekyll and Hyde exhibits a possible "Victorian" suppressed homosexual
element, that yes, it is in that sense Nabokovian.
Carolyn
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What disturbs me about your hypothesis concerning Kinbote and Shade as
"one" came to my attention only quite recently. If Kinbote is a projection
of split off aspects that belong to Shade ( the division could follow other
strands, as you also suggested when connecting them with Stevenson's J&H )
then there would have been no Kinbote outside upsetting the lids of
trash-cans and rapping against the window.
Kinbote does not literally upset trash cans or make jokes with professors
over lunch. These are metaphors for his attempts to make his presence known
to Shade. Remember that his first appearance in America coincides with
Shade's illness ( a heart attack? a stroke?). His emergence as a separate
fully conscious character does not occur until the stroke(s) that turn Shade
into "a tipsy witch" and Shade's subsequent "death." Physically of course
he is not separate.
In that case, John Shade would also be the seducing Erlkönig who carried
Hazel away to her death ( following the hints in Goethe's poem).
I'm not sure what you mean by this, but I do think that Shade was
responsible for driving Hazel and "the other one in ballerina black" to
suicide. Does that qualify as a seducing Erlkönig? I don't know.
Kinbote would also necessarily represent Shade's repressed homosexuality.
Does this appear Nabokovian to you?
Kinbote does represent Shade's repressed homosexuality. Do you mean this is
too "Freudian" to be Nabokovian? I would argue that since Nabokov speculated
that Jekyll and Hyde exhibits a possible "Victorian" suppressed homosexual
element, that yes, it is in that sense Nabokovian.
Carolyn
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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