Nabokov The Mystery of Literary Structures / Leona Toker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Toker, Leona.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977--Criticism and interpretation.

American literature.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 pages)

Place of Publication:

Cornell University Press 1989

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1989.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Vladimir Nabokov described the literature course he taught at Cornell as "a kind of detective investigation of the mystery of literary structures." Leona Toker here pursues a similar investigation of the enigmatic structures of Nabokov's own fiction. According to Toker, most previous critics stressed either Nabokov's concern with form or the humanistic side of his works, but rarely if ever the two together. In sensitive and revealing readings of ten novels, Toker demonstrates that the need to reconcile the human element with aesthetic or metaphysical pursuits is a constant theme of Nabokov's and that the tension between technique and content is itself a key to his fiction. Written with verve and precision, Toker's book begins with Pnin and follows the circular pattern that is one of her subject's own favored devices.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

1. Introduction

2. Pnin: The Quest That Overrides the Goal

3. Mary: "Without Any Passport"

4. King, Queen, Knave, or Lust under the Linden

5. The Defense: Secret Asymmetries

6. Glory: "Good Example of How Metaphysics Can Fool You"

7. Laughter in the Dark: Guinea Pigs and Galley Slaves

8 . Invitation to a Beheading: "Nameless Existence, Intangible Substance"

9. The Gift: Models of Infinity

10. Bend Sinister: The "Inner" Problem

11. "Reader! Bruder!": Broodings on the Rhetoric of Lolita

12 . Conclusion

Bibliography of Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography: p. 231-237.

This eBook is made available Open Access. Unless otherwise specified in the content, the work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781501707049

1501707043

OCLC:

586079385