The European Nabokov web, classicism and T.S. Eliot : a textual interpretation of Pale fire / Robin H. Davies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davies, Robin H.

Series:

Studies in Russian and Slavic literatures, cultures and history.

Studies in Russian and Slavic literatures, cultures and history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977. Pale fire.

Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965.

Eliot, T. S.

Classicism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (235 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Academic Studies Press, 2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Robin Davies here demonstrates that Nabokov's Pale Fire has a classical unity and represents a direct attack on T.S. Eliot's philosophical position, particularly as given in The Waste Land and as represented by Eliot's later tendency for conservatism in literature, politics, and religion. After Nabokov was forced into exile from Germany and then France in the 1930's with his young son and Jewish wife, Eliot's passivism must have seemed to him the very antithesis of survival. The enigmatic Pale Fire and its surface triviality suggested that there could be self-consistent logic within the obvious commentary of Charles Kinbote and John Shade's poem. Davies places this work in its vast European context, forming a bridge between Russian and European literature which will be appreciated by scholars of both.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Abbreviations

Foreword

Introduction

I. Lingua Franca and Topsy-turvical Coincidence

II. In Search of Horace and a Web of Sense

III. Héraclius, Hamlet and Genealogy

IV. Zembla - "How Farce and Epic Get a Jumbled Race"

V. Hamlet Unrestored: Sémiramis and the Royal Tomb

VI. Classical Affinities I : A Modern Aeneas

VII. Classical affinities II: An Ancient Nisus

VIII. The Browning Version and Contemporary Reality

IX. Corn, Cuckoldry, and the Amazonian Chin

X. Toile d'Eliot or Combinational Delight

XI. Phoenician Metamorphoses: Myth and Reality

XII. Varia - Selenography, Kinbote/Botkin, Glaucus, Fénélon

XIII. Murderous Intrigues

XIV. Tragedy and the Stagyrite

XV. Dramatic Poetry, Regicide, and Poetic Drama

XVI. Germanitas and Les Germains

XVII. Deus in Machina

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-61811-131-0

OCLC:

922977781