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----- Original Message -----
From: "Kiran Krishna" <kiran@Physics.usyd.edu.au>
----------------- Message requiring your approval (20
lines) ------------------
A while ago, in private discussions between myself, Jennifer Parsons and
Rodney Welch, a question arose of what precisely VN's relationship with
the major critical movements in the first two decades of the twentieth
century was. Worlds in Regression gives some idea of VN's attitudes
towards, and debt to, symbolism, as do the Onegin translations. What,
though, was his attitude towards the formalism of Shklovsky, Eichenbaum,
et al.? Roman Jakobson, who was responsible for that famous statement
about elephants and professors of zoology, was also one of the main
formalists, and the guide of the man who wrote what seems to be the
standard text on the subject, Victor Erlich.
Cheers!
yours
Kiran
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~kiran
------------------------------------------------
EDITOR's COMMENT: VN's debt to Russian Symbolism is now the subject of
research by several Russian Nabokovians. The most extended studies are by
Olga Skonechnaya. One of her articles appeared in NABOKOV STUDIES a couple
of years back. Maxim Shrayer has looked at the Shklovsky connection in
several articles. In spite of the hostility between Jakobson and VN, the
latter was clearly aware of and benefited from the idea of the Russian
Formalists.
From: "Kiran Krishna" <kiran@Physics.usyd.edu.au>
----------------- Message requiring your approval (20
lines) ------------------
A while ago, in private discussions between myself, Jennifer Parsons and
Rodney Welch, a question arose of what precisely VN's relationship with
the major critical movements in the first two decades of the twentieth
century was. Worlds in Regression gives some idea of VN's attitudes
towards, and debt to, symbolism, as do the Onegin translations. What,
though, was his attitude towards the formalism of Shklovsky, Eichenbaum,
et al.? Roman Jakobson, who was responsible for that famous statement
about elephants and professors of zoology, was also one of the main
formalists, and the guide of the man who wrote what seems to be the
standard text on the subject, Victor Erlich.
Cheers!
yours
Kiran
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~kiran
------------------------------------------------
EDITOR's COMMENT: VN's debt to Russian Symbolism is now the subject of
research by several Russian Nabokovians. The most extended studies are by
Olga Skonechnaya. One of her articles appeared in NABOKOV STUDIES a couple
of years back. Maxim Shrayer has looked at the Shklovsky connection in
several articles. In spite of the hostility between Jakobson and VN, the
latter was clearly aware of and benefited from the idea of the Russian
Formalists.