Subject: VN Bibliography: Bitov & Nabokov
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <[email-masked]>
To: "N" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 14:59:48 -0700

Marina L. Von Hirsch. LITERATURE AS COMMENTARY IN ANDREI BITOV'S PROSE: THE NABOKOV LINK.  PhD. Dissertation Florida State University. Spring 1997.

Andrei Bitov, born 1937, is perhaps Russia's greatest  writer of his generation. Although loosely linked with the "young prose" movement of the Sixties, he, then and now, stood alone as a somehow Proustian author, writing (and rewriting) his complex, introspective prose. In both Russia and the West he is best known for his novel PUSHKIN HOUSE which was finished in 1971 but first published by Ardis in 1978 in the U.S. It appeared in Russia only in 1989. 

Bitov "discovered" Nabokov in 1970 and that discovery had profound reverberations in his own work. Marina von Hirsch provides the following abstract of her study:

     "This dissertation is a comparative study which examines the central role that the discourse of literary commentary plays in the sui generis prose fiction of the contemporary Russian writer Andrei Bitov, and explores the affinites and differences of Bitov's literary discourse with that of Vladimir Nabokov.
    The study demonstrates that commentary serves Bitov as the medium for his philosophical thought, and as a means for exploring new techniques which are integral both to the structure and the meaning of his metafictional prose.
    This examination of Nabokov's and Bitv's methods of incorporating the traditionally critical discourse of commentary within the discourse of prose fiction demonstrates that the major point of contact between Bitov  and Nabokov lies in the symbiosis of art and criticism that occurs in their fiction and in the ability of their critical writing to include creative and imaginative elements. Their novels can be defined as fictional intersections, where the roads of philosophy, criticism, theory, and imagination merge. However, to achieve this effect, the two writers implemented different methods and techniques, as this study has also indicated.
    The comparative examination of Bitov's and Nabokov's methods of incorporating commentary in their fiction has revealed that the two writers often pursued different goals, thus demonstrating by subjective acts of individual creation their sui generis conceptions of novelistic vision and unique outlooks on life and art." 

    The study  consists of four chapters plus an Introduction and Conclusion. Chapter I discusses "Literary Roots, Historical Background, & Cultural Milieu." The second -- "Bitov and Nabokov; Nabokov in Bitov." Three -- "Literature as Commentary versus Commentary as Literature. Four -- "Crossing the Boundaries: Commentary Modes and Subgenres."

    I found this work to be most informative in several respects. While Bitov's early, meandering stories held little appeal for me, I was much taken with his PUSHKIN HOUSE and planned to write something about its many intimate connections with Nabokov, especially THE GIFT -- the identity of theme (Russian literature), the mise en abysme structure, etc. Reading Ellen Chances and Sven Spieker's recent books on Bitov, I realized how little I really know about Bitov's oeuvre and my ambition faded. Also, I confess that I failed to keep up with Bitov's work while Chances and Spieker focused mostly on the early and middle work. 

    Marina von Hirsch provides an excellent overview of Bitov's literary biography including near current work. The greatest strength of  study, however, is its survey of Bitov on VN and VN in Bitov. I also find the author's general argument that internal (and sometimes external) [auto-]commentary on their own work is a structural feature that, to a large extent, unites their approach to literature. 

    Perhaps the greatest service a work of criticism can perform is to inspire the reader to read and reread an author. I plan to add all of the later Bitov to my  reading list.