Subject
Metamorphosis in The Gift
From
Date
Body
In her last letter, Jansy Mello touches upon the principle of "metamorphic
writing" and prosopopeia in "The Gift". In this connection, let me cite
the following passage from my "Models of Space, Time and Vision in
Nabokov's Fiction" (pp. 248-250):
"The novel imitates the universe: multiple worlds are embedded one within
another ... In "The Gift" the real world metamorphoses into the fictional
and the fictional world assumes the form of the real. Poetry mingles with
prose, the otherworld filters into the earthly reality. The story of
father's travels intertwines with Pushkin's documentary prose, the
Chernyshevsky's story with the book on Chernyshevsky, love for Zina with
"The Gift" (see Davydov 1982, Paperno 1997). Finally, all these worlds
intertwine as different forms of writing and maturing literary
self-consciousness (see Tammi 1985: 84 on "The Gift" as a Künstlerroman).
Chernyshevsky's utilitarian thesis on the superiority of life over art is
subverted by a playful reversal of the direction of mimesis, when the real
space imitates the fictional one. ....
For Andrei Bely, the mirror was an emblem of the reversibility of mimetic
realtions of art and life and therefore a source of ontological anxiety
and panic... Nabokov turns this reversibility into a source of purely
aesthetic bliss or anxiety, making possible in fiction what is impossible
in life"
With the best wishes,
Marina Grishakova
The book elaborates also on anamorphosis, split personality, mirrors,
camera, kaleidoscope and other visual topics as well as their function in
Nabokov's fiction. It contains a number of references to other scholar's
work on these topics.
MG.
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
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writing" and prosopopeia in "The Gift". In this connection, let me cite
the following passage from my "Models of Space, Time and Vision in
Nabokov's Fiction" (pp. 248-250):
"The novel imitates the universe: multiple worlds are embedded one within
another ... In "The Gift" the real world metamorphoses into the fictional
and the fictional world assumes the form of the real. Poetry mingles with
prose, the otherworld filters into the earthly reality. The story of
father's travels intertwines with Pushkin's documentary prose, the
Chernyshevsky's story with the book on Chernyshevsky, love for Zina with
"The Gift" (see Davydov 1982, Paperno 1997). Finally, all these worlds
intertwine as different forms of writing and maturing literary
self-consciousness (see Tammi 1985: 84 on "The Gift" as a Künstlerroman).
Chernyshevsky's utilitarian thesis on the superiority of life over art is
subverted by a playful reversal of the direction of mimesis, when the real
space imitates the fictional one. ....
For Andrei Bely, the mirror was an emblem of the reversibility of mimetic
realtions of art and life and therefore a source of ontological anxiety
and panic... Nabokov turns this reversibility into a source of purely
aesthetic bliss or anxiety, making possible in fiction what is impossible
in life"
With the best wishes,
Marina Grishakova
The book elaborates also on anamorphosis, split personality, mirrors,
camera, kaleidoscope and other visual topics as well as their function in
Nabokov's fiction. It contains a number of references to other scholar's
work on these topics.
MG.
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