The International Nabokov Conference in Kyoto, 2010 Program
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Vladimir Nabokov-1899-1977 Ann-Margret “Maggie Yonan” 1998
Vladimir Nabokov-1899-1977 Ann-Margret “Maggie Yonan” 1998 The eldest son of Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov and his wife Elena, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899 into a Russian aristocratic family who fled Russia in the wake of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. One of five children, Nabokov was born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and was part of a household that spoke Russian, English, and French, making Nabokov tri-lingual at an early age. In 1917 the Nabokov family left Vyra for a friend's estate near Yalta in the Crimea, where they remained for 18 months. Following the defeat of the White Army in the Crimea, the Nabokovs left Russia for exile in western Europe. After emigrating from Russia in 1919 the family settled briefly in England, where Vladimir enrolled in Trinity College in Cambridge and studied Slavic and romance languages. In 1923 he graduated from Cambridge and relocated to Berlin, where he gained some reputation within the colony of Russian emigres as a novelist and poet, writing under the pseudonym Vladimir Sirin. Nabokov had lived in Vyra, Russia with his family, and in 1925 marries Véra Slonim, a Russian émigré, living in Berlin. Their son, Dmitri, was born in 1934. In 1937, Vladimir and his family left Berlin for Paris due to their disgust with the Nazi regime and in light of Mrs. Nabokov's Jewish heritage. In Paris, VN continued to write in Russian, composed a few works in French, and also wrote his first novel in English, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. -
Athletic Inspiration: Vladimir Nabokov and the Aesthetic Thrill of Sports Tim Harte Bryn Mawr College, [email protected]
Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Russian Faculty Research and Scholarship Russian 2009 Athletic Inspiration: Vladimir Nabokov and the Aesthetic Thrill of Sports Tim Harte Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/russian_pubs Custom Citation Harte, Tim. "Athletic Inspiration: Vladimir Nabokov and the Aesthetic Thrill of Sports," Nabokov Studies 12.1 (2009): 147-166. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/russian_pubs/1 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tim Harte Bryn Mawr College Dec. 2012 Athletic Inspiration: Vladimir Nabokov and the Aesthetic Thrill of Sports “People have played for as long as they have existed,” Vladimir Nabokov remarked in 1925. “During certain eras—holidays for humanity—people have taken a particular fancy to games. As it was in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, so it is in our present-day Europe” (“Braitenshtreter – Paolino,” 749). 1 For Nabokov, foremost among these popular games were sports competitions. An ardent athlete and avid sports fan, Nabokov delighted in the competitive spirit of athletics and creatively explored their aesthetic as well as philosophical ramifications through his poetry and prose. As an essential, yet underappreciated component of the Russian-American writer’s art, sports appeared first in early verse by Nabokov before subsequently providing a recurring theme in his fiction. The literary and the athletic, although seemingly incongruous modes of human activity, frequently intersected for Nabokov, who celebrated the thrills, vigor, and beauty of sports in his present-day “holiday for humanity” with a joyous energy befitting such physical activity. -
The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov Edited by Julian W
Cambridge University Press 052153643X - The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov Edited by Julian W. Connolly Frontmatter More information The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov held the unique distinction of being one of the most impor- tant writers of the twentieth century in two separate languages, Russian and English. Known for his verbal mastery and bold plots, Nabokov fashioned a literary legacy that continues to grow in significance. This volume offers a con- cise and informative introduction to the author’s fascinating creative world. Specially commissioned essays by distinguished scholars illuminate numerous facets of the writer’s legacy, from his early contributions as a poet and short- story writer to his dazzling achievements as one of the most original novelists of the twentieth century. Topics receiving fresh coverage include Nabokov’s narrative strategies, the evolution of his worldview, and his relationship to the literary and cultural currents of his day. The volume also contains valuable supplementary material such as a chronology of the writer’s life and a guide to further critical reading. © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 052153643X - The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov Edited by Julian W. Connolly Frontmatter More information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO NABOKOV EDITED BY JULIAN W. CONNOLLY University of Virginia © Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 052153643X - The Cambridge Companion to Nabokov Edited by Julian W. Connolly Frontmatter More information cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru,UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521536431 C Cambridge University Press 2005 This book is in copyright. -
Nabokov's Speak, Memory As
THE EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF LIFE WRITING VOLUME VIII(2019)28–46 The Memoirist against History: Nabokov’s Speak, Memory as the (re)negotiation of a literary form at the intersection of personal experience and historical narrative Michael Sala University of Newcastle, Australia Abstract: Nabokov’s Speak, Memory is a literary memoir that negotiates the relationship between history and personal experience by illuminating one end of a spectrum of authoritative effects that range from artifice to sponta- neity. In using play to leverage and highlight the tension between the artifice of a work of literature and the spontaneity of personal expression (or sense making on an individual level,) and by implicating both reader and writer within that tension, it demonstrates how literary memoir can negotiate its relationship to its genre. There are thus two forms of negotiation at work in Speak, Memory, the one between artifice and spontaneity, the other between individual experience and historical narrative. In this way, by using play to invite the reader into the interpretative act, Nabokov emphasises the role of artifice in the autobiographical project, and, by doing so, stakes out a claim for the literary autobiographical writer in the face of historical narrative. Keywords: Nabokov, history, memoir, artifice One of the most studied episodes in Vladimir Nabokov’s autobiographi- cal work, Speak, Memory, is a sequence of events in the opening chapter unified by what the author describes as “the match stick theme.” The episode involves two encounters with Alexey Nikolayevich Kuropatkin, a member of the old Russian aristocracy. During the first encounter, at the European Journal of Life Writing, Vol VIII, 28–46 2019. -
Vladimir Nabokov's Representations of America in Lolita an Honors
“Lovely, Trustful, Dreamy, Enormous”: Vladimir Nabokov’s Representations of America in Lolita An Honors Paper for the Department of English By Tully Patrick Moyer Bowdoin College, 2018 Ó2018 Tully Moyer Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………iii Introduction ………….……………………………………………………………...………….…1 Not-so-separate Spheres: Privacy and Publicity in American Hotels and Motels..…….…….….. 9 Humbert the Persuader: Contradictory Criticisms of American Consumerism….………….….. 50 Connection to Place: Seeking an American Identity…………………….…………………..…. 98 Coda……...……………………………………………………………………….………...…..138 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………….…………....141 ii Acknowledgements Thank you to Professor Morten Hansen, my advisor on this project, for reading countless drafts, providing honest and productive feedback, and taking the time to talk about things at every step along the way. And of course, thank you for your guidance throughout my time in the Bowdoin English department, from my first year until now, constantly believing I can do better and showing me how to get there. Thank you to my readers, Professor Meredith McCarroll and Professor Hilary Thompson, for your thoughtful consideration and comments throughout the year. I appreciate your unique perspectives that have challenged me to think about my work in entirely new ways. Thank you to Professor Celeste Goodridge, for your years of service to Bowdoin College and the immeasurable impact that you had on the lives of so many Bowdoin students. Beginning with my first college English course, your passion and brilliance inspired me to think about the English language and my time as a student in an entirely different way. I have always valued the time that you took, long after your role as my professor ended, to care for my education and life more generally, and all of my future intellectual pursuits will be shaped in a significant way by my time with you. -
Chess As a Key to Solving Nabokov's Korol', Dama, Valet
CHESS AS A KEY TO SOLVING NABOKOV’S KOROL’, DAMA, VALET James Murray Slater A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Chapel Hill 2009 Approved by: Radislav Lapushin Madeline Levine Christopher Putney ABSTRACT James Murray Slater: Chess as a Key to Solving Nabokov’s Korol’, dama, valet (Under the direction of Professor Radislav Lapushin) This thesis examines the role of chess in Nabokov’s novel, Korol’, dama, valet , and how the struggle between the narrator and the protagonist, Martha-Marta , can be justified by using chess as a key. The first portion of my analysis is based on the role of the diegetic narrator in an attempt to subvert Martha’s movements toward autonomy. In explaining the narrator’s subversion of Martha, I explore the nature of the protagonists, the movement of the narrative, and the structure and parameters of the novel in relation to it being a figurative game of chess. Furthermore, Martha’s attempts at dominance are examined in connection to the concept of past-reconstruction. I conclude my analysis by ushering in unifying intersections of plot and characterization in Nabokov’s later work. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. INTRODUCTION……………….……………………………….………1 II. NARRATIVE DIEGESIS, PROTAGONISTS AND CHESS…………..11 III. BLADVAK VINOMORI AS THE AUTHOR INCARNATE….………28 IV. MARTHA’S STRUGGLE FOR AUTHORIAL CONTROL…...………32 V. NABOKOV & REINVENTION……………………………….………..40 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………...46 WORKS CITED OR CONSULTED ………………………………………………....…52 iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Бархатный стук в голове : это ходят фигуры резные . -
Martin Amis on Vladimir Nabokov's Work | Books | the Guardian
Martin Amis on Vladimir Nabokov's work | Books | The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/14/vladimir-naboko... The problem with Nabokov Vladimir Nabokov's unfinished novella, The Original of Laura, is being published despite the author's instructions that it be destroyed after his death. Martin Amis confronts the tortuous questions posed by a genius in decline Martin Amis The Guardian, Saturday 14 November 2009 larger | smaller Vladimir Nabokov in Switzerland, in about 1975. Photograph: Horst Tappe/Getty Images Language leads a double life – and so does the novelist. You chat with family and friends, you attend to your correspondence, you consult menus and shopping lists, you observe road signs (LOOK LEFT), and so on. Then you enter your study, where language exists in quite another form – as the stuff of patterned artifice. Most writers, I think, would want to go along with Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), when he reminisced in 1974: The Original of Laura: (Dying is Fun) a Novel in Fragments (Penguin Modern Classics) by Vladimir Nabokov 304pp, Penguin Classics, £25 1 of 11 11/15/09 12:59 AM Martin Amis on Vladimir Nabokov's work | Books | The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/14/vladimir-naboko... Buy The Original of Laura: (Dying is Fun) a Novel in Fragments (Penguin Modern Classics) at the Guardian bookshop ". I regarded Paris, with its gray-toned days and charcoal nights, merely as the chance setting for the most authentic and faithful joys of my life: the coloured phrase in my mind under the drizzle, the white page under the desk lamp awaiting me in my humble home." Well, the creative joy is authentic; and yet it isn't faithful (in common with pretty well the entire cast of Nabokov's fictional women, creative joy, in the end, is sadistically fickle). -
Radical/Domestic: Representations of the Professor in Willa Cather's the Professor's House and Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin
AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Ian Butcher for the degree of Master of Arts in English presented on May 20, 2010. Title: Radical/Domestic: Representations of the Professor in Willa Cather's The Professor's House and Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin . Abstract approved: _____________________________________________________________________ Peter Betjemann This thesis is an exploration of literary representation of professors, specificially in Willa Cather's The Professor's House and Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin. I explicate the political unconscious of these texts by teasing out the tensions and ironies stemming from the conflict between the radical political consequences of the titular characters' scholarship (which aims to break down binaries and promote collective or communal interests) and their inability to fully articulate or enact those consequences. I argue that in The Professor's House, Godfrey St. Peter's desire to evacuate the content of his historical research of violence by writing his memories and domestic experiences into the text compromises his connection to the ground-level history he attempts to write. Only the end of the novel and its violent domestic event can prompt him to seek interaction with the outside “world of Augustas.” In Pnin, Timofey Pnin compromises his own radical work—an attempt to use popular beliefs and customs as a way to mirror the narratives and events of larger historical trends—through his failure to clearly articulate his position as a stakeholder in those larger historical events. The “untranslatable” nature of the exile's language leaves him silenced and without a place in the academy. © Copyright by Ian Butcher May 20, 2010 All Rights Reserved Radical/Domestic: Representations of the Professor in Willa Cather's The Professor's House and Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin by Ian Butcher A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Presented May 20, 2010 Commencement June 2010 Master of Arts thesis of Ian Butcher presented on May 20, 2010. -
Exile and Temporality in Nabokov's Short Stories
“I Confess I Do Not Believe In Time” Exile and Temporality in Nabokov’s Short Stories Merel Aalders (11753560) Master Thesis UvA Comparative Literature First Reader: dr. B. Noordenbos Second reader: dr. E.R.G. Metz June 2019 1 Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 3 Part I: The Writer In Exile ...................................................................................................... 8 Autobiography and the Concept of Time ................................................................................ 8 Displacement for the Transatlantic Intellectual ................................................................... 11 Memory and Nostalgia ......................................................................................................... 13 Part II: Exile As Displacement and Narrative Temporality .............................................. 17 Narrative Temporality .......................................................................................................... 17 Displacement: Two Short Stories ......................................................................................... 21 Part III: Exile As Nostalgic Condition ................................................................................. 26 Nostalgia and Creativity ....................................................................................................... 26 Narratology ......................................................................................................................... -
This Thesis Has Been Approved by the Honors
1 This thesis has been approved by The Honors Tutorial College and the Department of English ______________________________ Dr. Thom Dancer Professor, English Thesis Adviser ______________________________ Dr. Carey Snyder Honors Tutorial College, DOS, English ______________________________ Dr. Jeremy Webster Dean, Honors Tutorial College 2 Between Artifice and Actuality: The Aesthetic and Ethical Metafiction of Vladimir Nabokov and David Mitchell ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to The Honors Tutorial College Ohio University _______________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English ______________________________________ by Trent A. McDonald April 2014 3 Acknowledgments The most important person to the completion of this thesis is Dr. Thom Dancer, the best thesis adviser one could hope for. His tireless support, strong critical eye, and passionate enthusiasm for contemporary literature have made this thesis as good as it possibly could be. All of the mistakes herein should not reflect on him and should only be credited to me. My parents, Missy and Scott McDonald, are of course responsible for my attending Ohio University. Without them I would have nothing. My Director of Studies, Dr. Carey Snyder, has been of great importance to my academic life over these past four years. The faculty of Ohio University also deserve my thanks for changing my mind about so many things; I must single out in particular Dr. Josephine Bloomfield, Dr. Joseph McLaughlin, Dr. Steve Hayes, Kristin LeMay, Dr. Samuel Crowl and Dr. Matthew Stallard. The Honors Tutorial College and Dean Jeremy Webster, former Assistant Dean Jan Hodson, and current Assistant Dean Cary Frith have my eternal gratitude for the opportunities they have given to me. -
The Models of Space, Time and Vision in V. Nabokov's Fiction
Tartu Semiotics Library 5 2 THE MODELS OF SPACE, TIME AND VISION Tartu Semiootika Raamatukogu 5 Тартуская библиотека семиотики 5 Ruumi, aja ja vaate mudelid V. Nabokovi proosas: Narratiivistrateegiad ja kultuurifreimid Marina Grišakova Mодели пространства, времени и зрения в прозе В. Набокова: Нарративные стратегии и культурные фреймы Марина Гришакова University of Tartu The Models of Space, Time and Vision in V. Nabokov’s Fiction: Narrative Strategies and Cultural Frames Marina Grishakova Tartu 2012 4 THE MODELS OF SPACE, TIME AND VISION Edited by Silvi Salupere Series editors: Peeter Torop, Kalevi Kull, Silvi Salupere Address of the editorial office: Department of Semiotics University of Tartu Jakobi St. 2 Tartu 51014, Estonia http://www.ut.ee/SOSE/tsl.htm This publication has been supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia Department of Literature and the Arts, University of Tampere Cover design: Inna Grishakova Aleksei Gornõi Rauno Thomas Moss Copyright University of Tartu, 2006 ISSN 2228-2149 (online) ISBN 978-9949-32-068-4 (online) Second revised edition available online only. ISSN 1406-4278 (print) ISBN 978–9949–11–306–4 (2006 print edition) Tartu University Press www.tyk.ee In memory of Yuri Lotman, the teacher 6 THE MODELS OF SPACE, TIME AND VISION Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................... 9 Introduction ............................................................................... 11 I. Models and Metaphors.......................................................... -
The Gift: Synesthesia in Translingual Texts
L2 Journal, Volume 4 (2012), pp. 214-229 http://repositories.cdlib.org/uccllt/l2/vol4/iss2/art2/ The Gift: Synesthesia in Translingual Texts NATASHA LVOVICH Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York E-mail: [email protected] This interdisciplinary article explores the relationship between multilingualism and synesthesia (neuro- psychological blend of senses) using textual data from several translingual authors—writers who write in their non-native language (L2). I briefly summarize the existing research on synesthesia, primarily its relationship to language, cognition, and emotionality, and share my own multilingual synesthetic perceptions exemplified in my published work. I theorize that ‘translingual synesthesia’ is a complex cross-modal metaphor and a spontaneous imagistic ‘device,’ possibly enhanced by or concurrent with multilingualism, which allows writers to transcend cognitive and linguistic realms and to embody L2 with personal imagery while simultaneously creating an aesthetic effect of “de-familiarization of the word.” Applied to language learning and teaching, synesthesia lends a view into learners’ diverse subjectivities and their lingua-cultural and lingua-emotional dispositions, which can be modeled by language teachers. _______________ “A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles, Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes: A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles…” —Arthur Rimbaud, Voyelles (1973, p. 78) “HOW DID IT BEGIN WITH YOU?” In his novel, The Gift (1991), one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, the multilingual Vladmir Nabokov, describes his synesthesia in the following dialogue: How did it begin with you? - When my eyes opened to the alphabet.