R David Charles)Nicol

TYPES OP FORMAL STRUCTURE IN SELECTED NOVELS OP VLADIMIR NABOKOV r David Charles)Nicol A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY June 1970 Approved by Doctoral Committee Adviser Graduate School-Representative ii ABSTRACT This study of the formal structures in the novels of Vladimir Nabokov begins with an analysis of his manipula tion of individual scenes, then considers the devices that determine the structure of various novels, and then at tempts to establish the dynamic that informs the canon of Nabokov's novels. The first chapter investigates Nabokov's manipulation of his reader's expectations as a formal device, with Laughter in the Dark as the primary example. Lolita, where the technique is modified, is compared with the ear lier work. The second chapter applies Nabokov's idea of "thematic designs" to Pnin. These inter-connecting networks of sub merged references are seen as reinforcing the surface structure of the novel. The third chapter investigates the larger structures that define the form of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. The novel is seen as a series of different formal ap proaches to the writing of a novel, and these authorial perspectives are considered individually. The long final chapter attempts a broad perspective on the organization of Nabokov's novels, through the applica tion of a generalization about the interplay of memory and parody. This duality in Nabokov's aesthetics is investi gated in King, Queen, Knave, Laughter in the Dark, Invita tion to a Beheading, The gift, Bend Sinister, Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION.............................................. 1 CHAPTER I, AUDIENCE AND CHARACTER EXPECTATIONS AS DETERMINERS OFF ORM..................... 3 The Psychology of the Audience.............. .3 Audience Expectation in Laughter in the Dark.......................................... 4 Character as Audience Surrogate: Humbert's Lolita................... 11 The Comedy of Character Fulfilment................. 19 CHAPTER II, ASSOCIATIVE STRUCTURE: THEMATIC DESIGNS IN PNIN................................ 22 Introduction ....................................... 22 Pnin’s Research ................................... 25 Associative Structure: Squirrel to Glass.......................................... 27 Thematic Designs ................................... 30 Associative Structure: Shadows ......... 31 Victor, Dreams and Shadows.......... 33 Character and Creator ............................ 40 CHAPTER III, THE MIRRORS OF SEBASTIAN KNIGHT ....................................... 44 Mirrors............... .44 Methods of Composition............. 47 The Novels of Sebastian Knight .................... 50 iv CHAPTER IV, THE DYNAMICS OF NABOKOV’S ART....................................... 62 Dialectical Introduction ............. ......... 62 Ecstasy and Memory.................................. 62 Parody, Trickery, and the Dream Agent.................................... 6? The Dynamics of the Magician.............. 70 The Dynamics of Lolita ...................... 72 Humbert............................................. 73 Quilty............................................... 76 Lolita............................................... 79 The Early Novels: The Art of Non-Involvement ................. ....... 81 Invitation to a Beheading...........................88 The Gift............................................94 Bend Sinister.......................................98 Pale Fire..................... 104 Ada or Ardor ........................ 110 Summary .............................................122 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................... 124 1 INTRODUCTION Form is organization. The novels of Vladimir Nabokov, deliberately unrelated to their author’s life and uncon cerned with providing a message, are rewarding because of their brilliant language and their intricate structuring of novelistic events. They employ many Interesting and original formal devices, or organizing principles. The present study is an attempt to analyse these various meth ods of composition, and is restricted to this area; it in tends no value judgments on Nabokov’s work, no definition of his place in the history of literature, and no compar isons with other novelists except where such comparison is essential to illuminate Nabokov’s intentions. Nor is this study concerned with Interpretation—at least not inter pretation drawn from outside the novels themselves. Nabo kov’s work is not here related to his biography, his fi nances, his social class, or his psychological profile. This study was written over the course of four years, and some of its sections have already been published. It has grown more like a weed-patch than like a crystal, and each chapter is substantially self-contained. Roughly, it proceeds from microcosm to macrocosm; only the last chap ter concerns itself with an overview of Nabokov’s novels— and that overview is deliberately (and necessarily) incom plete. 2 The study Is intended as a guide to various formal elements in the writings of a great novelist. Whatever the possible relevance or irrelevance of this approach to contemporary trends in criticism, it is hoped that the ap proach is well suited to investigating the peculiar genius of Vladimir Nabokov. 3 CHAPTER I, AUDIENCE AND CHARACTER EXPECTATIONS AS DETERMINERS OF FORM The Psychology of the Audience The subject of this chapter is psychological form, form governed not by a striving for unity, but by the ex pectations of the audience. The psychology of the audi ence as a determiner of form was brilliantly analysed by Kenneth Burke in an essay of 1931, "Psychology and Form": Form is the creation of an appetite in the mind of the auditor, and the adequate satisfying of that appetite. This satisfaction—so complicated is the human mechan ism—at times involves a temporary set of frustrations, but in the end these frustrations prove to be simply a more involved kind of satisfaction, and furthermore serve to make the satisfaction of fulfilment more in tense.* At the heart of Nabokov's construction lies this exploita tion of audience frustration and fulfilment, an organizing principle that governs his presentation of scenes and epi sodes within the novels. Kenneth Burke quite rightly finds Shakespeare to be the supreme master of the psychology of the audience. His example, given below, of Shakespeare's technique, Is also, however, a paradigm of Nabokov's psychological form. 1 Kenneth Burke, Counter-Statement (Los Altos, Cal., 1953), P. 31. 4 Hamlet stands with Horatio and Marcellus, awaiting the appearance of the ghost. The audience has awaited this confrontation for the first three scenes; now the friends further set the stage by announcing that the ghost might be expected to appear at any moment. Promptly hereafter there is a sound off-stage. "A flourish of trumpets, and ordnance shot off within," Hamlet’s friends have established the hour as twelve. It is time for the ghost. Sounds off-stage, and of course it is not the ghost. It is, rather, the sound of the king’s carousal, for the king "keeps wassail,” A tricky, and useful, detail. We have been waiting for a ghost, and get, startlingly, a blare of trumpets. And, once the trumpets are silent, we feel how desolate are these three men waiting for a ghost, on a bare “platform," feel it by this sudden juxtaposition of an imagined scene of lights and merriment. But the trum pets announcing a carousal have suggested a subject of conversation. In the darkness Hamlet discusses the excessive drinking of his countrymen. Indeed, there in the gloom he is talking very intelligently on these matters, and Horatio answers, "Look, my Lord, it comes." All this time we had been waiting for a ghost, and it comes at the one moment which was not pointing towards it'. This ghost, so assiduously prepared for? is yet a surprise.1 This pattern, this surprise, this dropping of the trapdoor on the reader’s literary reflexes and then catching him in cadence to place him safely again on solid ground, is pre cisely the rhythm of Nabokov’s novels. Audience Expectation in Laughter in the Dark At various points in his career, Nabokov has exploited 1 Burke, pp. 30-31. My ellipsis and Italics 5 this pattern of surprise in different ways. The Gift, for instance, is studded with conversations that, we are in formed after a few pages, never happened. Although these discussions are functional since they demonstrate the vivid quality of the central character’s imagination, these ima ginary encounters are perhaps not completely satisfactory. In the two novels that describe imaginary totalitarian re gimes, Nabokov quite properly—considering his subject— sought to extend this technique of frustration still fur ther. Thus in Invitation to a Beheading Cincinnatus con tinually escapes from prison; each time we then discover that the escape was imaginary, one of Cincinnatus* fitful daydreams. And consider Krug’s crossing of the bridge in Bend Sinister. Krug has a pass, but the illiterate sol diers at the north end of the bridge will not let him by. Claiming acquaintance with the family of one soldier, Krug extricates himself. But Nabokov has more for us: at the south end of the bridge, Krug is told that the first group of soldiers should have signed his pass. He returns to the north end. Another traveler is allowed to sign Krug’s pass, and he traverses the bridge

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