Subject
Nabokov: Symbolisn & Formalism
From
Date
Body
EDITOR's COMMENT. See end.
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. Johnson's _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
------------------------------------------------------
EDIOR's COMMENT. Russian scholars are now deving considerable attention
to VN's ties to Russian Symbolism. The most extensive work so far is by Olga
Skonechnaya. One of her articles is in a recent issue of NABOKV STUDIES.
VN's debt to the Russian Formalists has been noted. Maxim Shrayer has
written, in particular about VN and Shklovsky seeing "Guidebook to Berlin"
as being a dialogue between them.
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. Johnson's _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
------------------------------------------------------
EDIOR's COMMENT. Russian scholars are now deving considerable attention
to VN's ties to Russian Symbolism. The most extensive work so far is by Olga
Skonechnaya. One of her articles is in a recent issue of NABOKV STUDIES.
VN's debt to the Russian Formalists has been noted. Maxim Shrayer has
written, in particular about VN and Shklovsky seeing "Guidebook to Berlin"
as being a dialogue between them.