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ANNC: Nabokov & the Art of Composition -- NeMLA Panel
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Dear list,
I am happy to present the panelists and abstracts for the 2014 NeMLA conference panel I will be chairing in April. The title of the panel is “Vladimir Nabokov and the Art of Composition.”
Nabokov’s Crosswords of Composition
Rebecca Freeh-Maciorowski, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Vladimir Nabokov was rather ambiguous and secretive when asked about his composition process. He did, however, reveal enough for us to gain a basic idea of the process. In one interview, he tells us: "The pattern of the thing precedes the thing. I fill in the gaps of the crossword at any spot I happen to choose. These bits I write on index cards until the novel is done" (Strong Opinions 99).
This paper explores Nabokov's reference to the filling in of a crossword puzzle during his composition process. Crossword puzzles were newly popularized during the 1920's, and Nabokov, we are told, "was a regular contributor of crossword puzzles to the Russian newspaper Rul' in Berlin". Most crosswords employ the sort of wordplay that he uses so joyfully in his fiction: puns, patterns, metaphor, etc. Standard crosswords form a symmetrical grid pattern, and the gaps to be filled in contain shared elements which dictate their placement within the whole. Nabokov enjoyed “their geometric, closed structure… reminiscent of chess” which “demand[s]… the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art…” (Sztein 224)
Based on a lengthy examination of Nabokov's discursive writings, published interviews, and a number of his novels, I posit that Nabokov's approach can be best understood as a type of figurative crossword process, wherein the author "forefeels" a structural pattern, then engages in the task of filling in the "shimmer of exact detail, and... [the] tumble of merging words" (Strong Opinions 309). It was this "shimmer and tumble" that Nabokov attempted to jot down on his notecards, and subsequently link together to form the unity of the whole, "mak[ing] verbal surfaces and sounds intimate an intuited harmony" (Peterson 98). “Filling in the gaps” entails making connections, transitions, which "Nabokov stressed... as the most demanding skill in storytelling" (Boyd). It also gives rise to those spots where literary objects overlap, what we might call the "nerves of the novel, the secret points and subliminal coordinates, by means of which the novel is plotted" (Lolita 316).
This compositional approach manifests itself in a number of Nabokov's novels, as illustrated in this paper. However, the compositional crosswords potentially underlying these works are not meant to be 'solved', or even to be seen. They represent the invisible scaffolding by which Nabokov created his worlds. At best, we can only glimpse a semblance of the true guts of Nabokov's glorious fiction, only the vaguest of those "thematic trails" and "systematic correlations" that the author wrote of in his autobiography.
‘Nabokov’s Extra-textual Revisions’
Lyndsay Miller, University of Nottingham
Vladimir Nabokov, throughout a literary career spanning six decades, five countries, three languages, two continents and two calendars, was an ‘incorrigible reviser’, constantly changing, translating and revising his own works. The author himself noted in an interview that ‘even the dream I describe to my wife across the breakfast table is only a first draft’. His tendency towards revision has multifarious modes (translation, rewriting, autobiography) and affects numerous aspects of his fiction (characters, place, themes).
This paper will examine the ways in which Nabokov’s extra-textual revisions alter the ways in which his individual texts and oeuvre are read. Specifically, it will consider the effects that the forewords to Nabokov’s translations of his Russian novels, as well as the afterwords to both the English and Russian language versions of Lolita, have on both the texts that they are attached to as well as his corpus overall. Nabokov uses these forewords and afterwords as opportunities to intrude upon both the original and translated texts, as well as the various other writings upon which he comments. This subverts the authority of the original and subsequent works, and causes them to be read in collaboration with their forewords and afterwords, thus creating several versions of the same text.
Nabokov attempts to reinforce his authorial presence on his works, both individually and as a whole, via these extra-textual revisions. However, the effect is quite different from the aim. By impressing extra-textual revisions onto texts after their publication, Nabokov destabilises the autonomy of his works, both individually and as a whole. These revisions cause the Nabokovian text to open up and become incomplete after the point of its completion. At this point, the reader is empowered and becomes a ‘co-producer’ of the text with Nabokov, negotiating the individual texts, their extra-textual revisions and the implications that they have for how Nabokov’s oeuvre can be, and is, read. Therefore, the author’s attempt for control via extra-textual revision is a
highly unreliable process which undermines its own aim, that is, the reinforcement of Nabokov as the omnipotent author.
“Efface, expunge, erase, delete, rub out, wipe out, obliterate”: Nabokov’s composition TOoL
Simon Rowberry, University of Winchester
When Dmitri Nabokov finally decided to publish his father’s famous unfinished last novel, The Original of Laura (TOoL), he took the unusual decision of presenting it as a facsimile of Nabokov’s index cards along with a transcription. In the aftermath of TOoL’s publication, the reception of Nabokov’s artistry has not shifted, and many critics have shunned the publication. Although the fragments reveal Nabokov’s declining power, they offer a powerful entry point to Nabokov’s mode of composition to the popular imagination. The original edition of the fragments encourages this behaviour as the cards are perforated, so the reader can remove the cards from their binding and shuffle them into any order they wish. The materiality of the text confronts the reader with ontological questions about Nabokov’s processes of composition.
The current paper argues that the value of TOoL lies in reading it as material evidence marketed to the mass public rather than remaining available only to those who can access the original. While the materials in the Library of Congress are now available for any interested party, unless they have access to the Library or funds to receive microfilm copies, the manuscripts are inaccessible. TOoL is an entry point into understanding Nabokov’s mode of composition. For an author with such an aura around his genius and his reluctance to conform to the norms of the book trade, such a document unravels the compositional artifices.
The facsimile of TOoL bear material witness to Nabokov’s hypertextual composition method, as the cards are ordered in a multi-linear fashion rather than conforming to an ascending number system. Several of the index cards feature rough drafts or material that has been worked in elsewhere, offering further insights into Nabokov’s material reliance on index cards to compose his complexly structured novels. Thus, Dmitri’s Nabokov’s choice of presentation for his father’s unfinished novel reveal new perceptions of Nabokov’s computational method of composition to the wider public, uncovering another way in which Nabokov can be connected to the history of hypertext.
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I am happy to present the panelists and abstracts for the 2014 NeMLA conference panel I will be chairing in April. The title of the panel is “Vladimir Nabokov and the Art of Composition.”
Nabokov’s Crosswords of Composition
Rebecca Freeh-Maciorowski, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Vladimir Nabokov was rather ambiguous and secretive when asked about his composition process. He did, however, reveal enough for us to gain a basic idea of the process. In one interview, he tells us: "The pattern of the thing precedes the thing. I fill in the gaps of the crossword at any spot I happen to choose. These bits I write on index cards until the novel is done" (Strong Opinions 99).
This paper explores Nabokov's reference to the filling in of a crossword puzzle during his composition process. Crossword puzzles were newly popularized during the 1920's, and Nabokov, we are told, "was a regular contributor of crossword puzzles to the Russian newspaper Rul' in Berlin". Most crosswords employ the sort of wordplay that he uses so joyfully in his fiction: puns, patterns, metaphor, etc. Standard crosswords form a symmetrical grid pattern, and the gaps to be filled in contain shared elements which dictate their placement within the whole. Nabokov enjoyed “their geometric, closed structure… reminiscent of chess” which “demand[s]… the same virtues that characterize all worthwhile art…” (Sztein 224)
Based on a lengthy examination of Nabokov's discursive writings, published interviews, and a number of his novels, I posit that Nabokov's approach can be best understood as a type of figurative crossword process, wherein the author "forefeels" a structural pattern, then engages in the task of filling in the "shimmer of exact detail, and... [the] tumble of merging words" (Strong Opinions 309). It was this "shimmer and tumble" that Nabokov attempted to jot down on his notecards, and subsequently link together to form the unity of the whole, "mak[ing] verbal surfaces and sounds intimate an intuited harmony" (Peterson 98). “Filling in the gaps” entails making connections, transitions, which "Nabokov stressed... as the most demanding skill in storytelling" (Boyd). It also gives rise to those spots where literary objects overlap, what we might call the "nerves of the novel, the secret points and subliminal coordinates, by means of which the novel is plotted" (Lolita 316).
This compositional approach manifests itself in a number of Nabokov's novels, as illustrated in this paper. However, the compositional crosswords potentially underlying these works are not meant to be 'solved', or even to be seen. They represent the invisible scaffolding by which Nabokov created his worlds. At best, we can only glimpse a semblance of the true guts of Nabokov's glorious fiction, only the vaguest of those "thematic trails" and "systematic correlations" that the author wrote of in his autobiography.
‘Nabokov’s Extra-textual Revisions’
Lyndsay Miller, University of Nottingham
Vladimir Nabokov, throughout a literary career spanning six decades, five countries, three languages, two continents and two calendars, was an ‘incorrigible reviser’, constantly changing, translating and revising his own works. The author himself noted in an interview that ‘even the dream I describe to my wife across the breakfast table is only a first draft’. His tendency towards revision has multifarious modes (translation, rewriting, autobiography) and affects numerous aspects of his fiction (characters, place, themes).
This paper will examine the ways in which Nabokov’s extra-textual revisions alter the ways in which his individual texts and oeuvre are read. Specifically, it will consider the effects that the forewords to Nabokov’s translations of his Russian novels, as well as the afterwords to both the English and Russian language versions of Lolita, have on both the texts that they are attached to as well as his corpus overall. Nabokov uses these forewords and afterwords as opportunities to intrude upon both the original and translated texts, as well as the various other writings upon which he comments. This subverts the authority of the original and subsequent works, and causes them to be read in collaboration with their forewords and afterwords, thus creating several versions of the same text.
Nabokov attempts to reinforce his authorial presence on his works, both individually and as a whole, via these extra-textual revisions. However, the effect is quite different from the aim. By impressing extra-textual revisions onto texts after their publication, Nabokov destabilises the autonomy of his works, both individually and as a whole. These revisions cause the Nabokovian text to open up and become incomplete after the point of its completion. At this point, the reader is empowered and becomes a ‘co-producer’ of the text with Nabokov, negotiating the individual texts, their extra-textual revisions and the implications that they have for how Nabokov’s oeuvre can be, and is, read. Therefore, the author’s attempt for control via extra-textual revision is a
highly unreliable process which undermines its own aim, that is, the reinforcement of Nabokov as the omnipotent author.
“Efface, expunge, erase, delete, rub out, wipe out, obliterate”: Nabokov’s composition TOoL
Simon Rowberry, University of Winchester
When Dmitri Nabokov finally decided to publish his father’s famous unfinished last novel, The Original of Laura (TOoL), he took the unusual decision of presenting it as a facsimile of Nabokov’s index cards along with a transcription. In the aftermath of TOoL’s publication, the reception of Nabokov’s artistry has not shifted, and many critics have shunned the publication. Although the fragments reveal Nabokov’s declining power, they offer a powerful entry point to Nabokov’s mode of composition to the popular imagination. The original edition of the fragments encourages this behaviour as the cards are perforated, so the reader can remove the cards from their binding and shuffle them into any order they wish. The materiality of the text confronts the reader with ontological questions about Nabokov’s processes of composition.
The current paper argues that the value of TOoL lies in reading it as material evidence marketed to the mass public rather than remaining available only to those who can access the original. While the materials in the Library of Congress are now available for any interested party, unless they have access to the Library or funds to receive microfilm copies, the manuscripts are inaccessible. TOoL is an entry point into understanding Nabokov’s mode of composition. For an author with such an aura around his genius and his reluctance to conform to the norms of the book trade, such a document unravels the compositional artifices.
The facsimile of TOoL bear material witness to Nabokov’s hypertextual composition method, as the cards are ordered in a multi-linear fashion rather than conforming to an ascending number system. Several of the index cards feature rough drafts or material that has been worked in elsewhere, offering further insights into Nabokov’s material reliance on index cards to compose his complexly structured novels. Thus, Dmitri’s Nabokov’s choice of presentation for his father’s unfinished novel reveal new perceptions of Nabokov’s computational method of composition to the wider public, uncovering another way in which Nabokov can be connected to the history of hypertext.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
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
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/