conjectures related to:
."Phyllis Greenacre..."
"The two quotations, attributed to Prof. C,
that Kinbote kept with him in his exile are strangely spaced in time (1917
and 1951) and, although their original sources were carefully preserved, the
actual lecture, article or book by Prof. C, from which they were copied, is
not presented. These annotations might have been
made, at various times, by Vladimir Nabokov himself and kept in his "shoe-box"
of curious informations. In this case, could Prof. C indicate some part of VN's
readings of psychoanalytic texts? (Prof. C. as an aspect of the author of
PF, I mean)."
Jansy Mello: Charles Kinbote describes
Prof. C's privileged terrace view of the New Wye landscape and how
Sybil chose him and Prof. Hurley to help in his editorial task.
Prof C is mentioned twice in the Index, but only
indirectly. The psychoanalytic quotations were part of a very general item:
a "college textbook" compiled by Prof. C, "a psychiatrist and literary
expert (!)"
When going back to Matt Roth's inquiry related to
Phyllis Greenacre and "Chatfield" (or S.Soloviev's "Cheat-field"), perhaps Prof.
C could have been Dr.Greenacre, a psychoanalyst who, as C.Kunin point out, has
published an article in "applied psychoanalysis," about E.A.Poe and L.Carroll*.
.It's an interesting conjecture but still I'm not convinced
that P.Greencre was indicated in "PF." (how about checking P.Greencre'a
publicxtions to locate the two quotes that have been linked to Prof.
C?) .
.
1. Kinbote, Charles, Dr., an intimate friend of
S, his literary adviser, editor and commentator...... his participation in a
Common Room discussion of his resemblance to the King, and his final rupture
with E. (not in the Index), 894; he and S shaking with mirth over tidbits in a
college textbook by Prof. C. (not in the Index), 929; his sad gesture of
weariness and gentle reproach, 937; a young lecturer in Onhava University
vividly recollected, 957; his last meeting with S in the poet’s arbor, etc.,
991; ...
2. Shade, John Francis, poet and scholar,
1898-1959; his work on Pale Fire and friendship with K, S’s defense of the
King of Zembla, 894; his and K’s hilarity over the rot in a textbook compiled by
Prof. C., psychiatrist and literary expert (!), 929; his beginning his last
batch of cards..
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
* - quoting C.Kunin: "Her [P.Greencre] book Trauma,
Growth, and Personality (1952) was very influential. It contained a version of
her previously published article, “The Prepuberty Trauma in Girls”
(Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1950), which Rachel Devlin has called “the most
important analysis of a repressed adolescent Oedipus complex” (Relative Intimacy
35). These publications overlap with the period when VN was writing Lolita
and Pnin, for which he consulted much of this type of literature (ridiculous as
he found it). Even more offensive to VN must have been Greenacre’s
trespass into the world of literary criticism. In 1952 she also published Swift
and Carroll: A Psychoanalytic Study of Two Lives (International Univ.
Press). ".