In a collection of critical essays by Ivan
Junqueira ( O Fio de Dédalo, Ensaios, Ed.Record, RJ and SP, 1998), in
great part devoted to poetry and a few novels, there was a single entry
about Nabokov, in his article on "A Century of Fiction" ( Um século de
ficção), that carries extensive quotes from Malcom Bradbury's "The
Modern American Novel" ("O romance americano moderno", 1991).
While discussing the 1940-1960 decades, marked by
a "liberal and existencial imagination", Junqueira lists various
writers: Willard Motley, Nelson Algren, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote,
Flannery O'Connor, Lionel Trilling, Mary McCarthy, James Baldwin, John Cheever,
John Barth, James Purdy, Therry Southern, John Updike together with Saul Bellow,
I.B.Singer, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, J.D.Salinger, Jack
Kerouac and William Burroughs.
Finally he adds: " It's advisable not to forget
Vladimir Nabokov, whose "Lolita" ( 1955) performed a spectacular editorial and
literary trajectory."
No particular novel, such as "Pale Fire", is
mentioned for the 1960 and 1970 decades, but Junqueira returns once more to
Nabokov in a short sentence: "Nominalism and anti-realism are
predominant, as established by Nabokov."("Predominam agora o
anti-realismo e o nominalismo instaurado por Nabokov.")
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btw: Ivan Junqueira devoted several lines to Hugh MacDiarmid in his essay on
"British Poetry of the XXth Century" ( A poesia britânica no século XX), placing
Lowland's lallans in the meridional and oriental portion of Scotland
where the population is predominantly of German origin and unfamiliar
with Celtic. MacDiarmid's lyrical poetry is reported as exerting
a strong influence on the Scottish poets of his time, particularly
on Sidney Goodsir Smith, Robert Garioch and Tom Scott.
Junqueira paced MacDiarmid close to William Emson and
to John Lehmann's "New Poetry", stating that he was the only one that
remain loyal to old ideals: as a passionate regionalist and the most
communist in his group. His work retains the musicality of Burns
and the metaphorical richness of metaphysical poetry, as can be found in
his "First Hymn to Lenin and other Poems (1931), Second Hymn to Lenin and other
Poems (1935)" and in an exceptional epic poem about James Joyce (1956).
MacDiarmid is contrasted to Edwin Muir who promoted the integration between
scottish dialectal forms ("formas dialetais escocesas") to literary
English.
From this ennumeration of data it seems to me that
Nabokov would not have been a great admirer of Hugh MacDiarmid's
oeuvre.