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Fw: Fw: Petty nationalism
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----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Petty nationalism
..... jotting down a few thoughts on the matter and if any idea proves useful, you can post it or not... I dislike nationalistic reivindications but I have not enough knowledge about social or cultural issues involved to speak out coherently . And yet, because I agree with Colquhoun I don´t want to remain silent.
A country may change radically depending on the new King, Emperor, President that is in power. Spain has just rejected Aznaro at the presidential elections. Who is a true Spaniard: the ones that are for or against his policies? If VN had not had to flee Russia or if his country had not changed, would VN have moved to America?
I heard that even before there was a Greek State there were small cities with Greek speaking inhabitants scattered all over Europe and Asia. They were considered Greek cities because the language they spoke was Greek.
I have no idea about how taxation was organized then and this is another important social determinant of nationality, loyalties and obligations.
Taxes and military service can serve as criteria to determine a nationality. I imagine that VN´s fortune still comes from copyrights and that they are taxed. What country gets the payment now: Russia? America ? Switzerland? VN kept his American passport and nationality, does this per se make him be more American ?
While anyone may privately consider VN as " American" or as a " Russian American" or as an " American Russian" writer, does it alter anything in a broader sense? I agree that we should take VN as " an international writer" that "transcends borders, language..." as Colkuhoun writes. But does this also make a difference concerning the writings of VN?
Cultural references are important to understand VN´s writing and, as you have noted, an alien eye may pick up things that escape the natives. But you also wrote about " cultural allegiance". There are unavoidable cultural references towards a country we come to hate or reject, that seep into an author´s way of seeing the world and these have no relation to "cultural allegiances".
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 2:13 PM
Subject: Fw: Petty nationalism
----- Original Message -----
From: Tina Colquhoun
To: 'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 3:48 AM
Subject: Petty nationalism
> By the way, I refuse to allow Nabokov to be considered anything other than an American novelist. He chose us.
> He's ours. And he's a genius who is, in relation to Bellow, what Shakespeare is to, say, Kit Smart. Adopted
> children agree, the one who broke their back to raise you is the true parent, not the one who merely begat you.
What an absurd statement. Isn't the whole point of Nabokov that he transcends borders, language, etc? There can hardly be a more 'international' writer. He's not more 'yours' than he's anyone else's. If you need affirmation through some petty nationalism, go and support a football team.
TA Colquhoun