Nabokov and Indeterminacy

Nabokov and Indeterminacy
Author :
Publisher : Northwestern University Press
Total Pages : 200
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0810137437
ISBN-13 : 9780810137431
Rating : 4/5 (37 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Nabokov and Indeterminacy by : Priscilla Meyer

Download or read book Nabokov and Indeterminacy written by Priscilla Meyer and published by Northwestern University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Nabokov and Indeterminacy, Priscilla Meyer shows how Vladimir Nabokov’s early novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight illuminates his later work. Meyer first focuses on Sebastian Knight, exploring how Nabokov associates his characters with systems of subtextual references to Russian, British, and American literary and philosophical works. She then turns to Lolita and Pale Fire, applying these insights to show that these later novels clearly differentiate the characters through subtextual references, and that Sebastian Knight’s construction models that of Pale Fire. Meyer argues that the dialogue Nabokov constructs among subtexts explores his central concern: the continued existence of the spirit beyond bodily death. She suggests that because Nabokov’s art was a quest for an unattainable knowledge of the otherworldly, knowledge which can never be conclusive, Nabokov’s novels are never closed in plot, theme, or resolution—they take as their hidden theme the unfinalizability that Bakhtin says characterizes all novels. The conclusions of Nabokov's novels demand a rereading, and each rereading yields a different novel. The reader can never get back to the same beginning, never attain a conclusion, and instead becomes an adept of Nabokov’s quest. Meyer emphasizes that, unlike much postmodern fiction, the contradictions created by Nabokov’s multiple paths do not imply that existence is constructed arbitrarily of pre-existing fragments, but rather that these fragments lead to an ever-deepening approach to the unknowable.


Nabokov and Indeterminacy Related Books

Nabokov and Indeterminacy
Language: en
Pages: 200
Authors: Priscilla Meyer
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-08-15 - Publisher: Northwestern University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Nabokov and Indeterminacy, Priscilla Meyer shows how Vladimir Nabokov’s early novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight illuminates his later work. Meyer fir
Reimagining Nabokov
Language: en
Pages: 230
Authors: José Vergara
Categories: Education
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-02-03 - Publisher: Amherst College Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Reimagining Nabokov: Pedagogies for the 21st Century, eleven teachers of Vladimir Nabokov describe how and why they teach this notoriously difficult, even pr
Nabokov and Indeterminacy
Language: en
Pages: 200
Authors: Priscilla Meyer
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-08-15 - Publisher: Northwestern University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In Nabokov and Indeterminacy, Priscilla Meyer shows how Vladimir Nabokov’s early novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight illuminates his later work. Meyer fir
The Nature of Trauma in American Novels
Language: en
Pages: 165
Authors: Michelle Balaev
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-06-11 - Publisher: Northwestern University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This book examines literary trauma theory from its foundations to its implementations and new possibilities. ... [A]n analysis that reconsiders the meaning and
Only Among Women
Language: en
Pages: 418
Authors: Anne Eakin Moss
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-11-15 - Publisher: Northwestern University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Only Among Women reveals how the idea of a community of women as a social sphere ostensibly free from the taint of money, sex, or self-interest originated in th