Zsenszkoe nacsalo v romane Nabokova «Masenyka»
Author: György Zoltán Józsa
Source: Studia Slavica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Volume 45, Numbers 1-4, 19 January 2001, pp. 363-382(20)
Abstract:
The article deals with Nabokov's first Russian novel
subsequently translated into English. It provides a review concerning early
Russian emigré criticism misinterpreting the novel. The chief aim of the article
however is to establish a link between traditions of turn-of-the-century Russian
Symbolist mainstream and themes incorporated in Nabokov's prose. Thus the
non-existent heroine, Ma
enka is
discussed as a female type around which the poetry of Aleksandr Blok and Andrei
Belyj would crystallyse, i.e. the Holy Sophia, whose coming would signal the
coming of the Kingdom of the Holy Ghost, an entire transformation of the world
and Humankind envisaged as early as the Age of German Romanticism, as the Birth
of Theocracy, prophesied later by Russian religious philosophers first and
foremost in the works of Vl. Solov´ev. Several motifs throughout the novel will
confirm that Nabokov starts a dialogue with Blok, referring to the image of the
Beautiful Lady, which was identified with not only the Virgin Mary, but the
Gnostic erotically conceptualized image of Sophia as well. Creating his own
microcosm, Nabokov in a letter openly admits his rivalry with the Creator, thus
disclosing his credo concerning the art of literature. (NB. nearly the same
con-cept will be echoed in his theoretical works later on.) From this one can
conclude Nabokov partially exhibits his kinship to the Russian Religious
Symbolists, following their concept of creation termed 'the theurgical way'.
Maenka, taken as
the inevitable feminine principle therefore is deeply rooted in the ideal of
spiritual transformation awaiting the hero, Ganin, who consequently gives up
nursing hopes for the rebirth of his adolescent love affair, choos-ing the way
of spiritual resurrection in a locus that is associated with Provence in the
novel. The Berlin boarding house filled with phantom-like figures embodying
recollections of czarist Russia establishes a realistic depiction of the life of
the exiled Russians, however memories will prevail, thus leading the reader to
interpret the novel rather as a novel about initiation, the sharing of
spirituality.
enka is
discussed as a female type around which the poetry of Aleksandr Blok and Andrei
Belyj would crystallyse, i.e. the Holy Sophia, whose coming would signal the
coming of the Kingdom of the Holy Ghost, an entire transformation of the world
and Humankind envisaged as early as the Age of German Romanticism, as the Birth
of Theocracy, prophesied later by Russian religious philosophers first and
foremost in the works of Vl. Solov´ev. Several motifs throughout the novel will
confirm that Nabokov starts a dialogue with Blok, referring to the image of the
Beautiful Lady, which was identified with not only the Virgin Mary, but the
Gnostic erotically conceptualized image of Sophia as well. Creating his own
microcosm, Nabokov in a letter openly admits his rivalry with the Creator, thus
disclosing his credo concerning the art of literature. (NB. nearly the same
con-cept will be echoed in his theoretical works later on.) From this one can
conclude Nabokov partially exhibits his kinship to the Russian Religious
Symbolists, following their concept of creation termed 'the theurgical way'.
Maenka, taken as
the inevitable feminine principle therefore is deeply rooted in the ideal of
spiritual transformation awaiting the hero, Ganin, who consequently gives up
nursing hopes for the rebirth of his adolescent love affair, choos-ing the way
of spiritual resurrection in a locus that is associated with Provence in the
novel. The Berlin boarding house filled with phantom-like figures embodying
recollections of czarist Russia establishes a realistic depiction of the life of
the exiled Russians, however memories will prevail, thus leading the reader to
interpret the novel rather as a novel about initiation, the sharing of
spirituality.