Nabokov and the Novel / Ellen Pifer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pifer, Ellen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

LITERARY CRITICISM / Russian & Former Soviet Union.

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

Local Subjects:

LITERARY CRITICISM / Russian & Former Soviet Union.

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

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Ellen Pifer challenges the widely held assumption that Nabokov is a writer more interested in literary games than in living human beings. She demonstrates how Nabokov arranges the details of his fiction to explore human psychology and moral truth, and she argues her case with style. Focusing on the most highly wrought and aesthetically self-conscious of Nabokov's novels, Pifer shows how he deploys artifice to bring into bold relief what is real. In her chapter on King, Queen, Knave she reveals Nabokov's radical distinction between genuine and simulated human existence. She shows how, in Invitation to a Beheading and Bend Sinister, he contrasts "grotesque design" of collective existence with the individul's radiant internal life. In Despair, Lolita, and Pale Fire Nabokov's parody of the double illuminates the unique source of human consciousness. In Ada, as in the earlier Laughter in the Dark, the inhuman nature of aesthetic bliss qualifies its delights. Making clear the moral perception of reality that lies behind Nabokov's artistic strategies, Pifer offers a new assessment of Nabokov's fiction and of his contribution to the tradition of the novel.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

CHAPTER I. The Question of Character

CHAPTER II. Consciousness, Real Life, and Fairytale Freedom: King, Queen, Knave

CHAPTER III. Breaking the Law of Averages: Invitation to a Beheading

CHAPTER IV. Putting Two and One Together: Bend Sinister

CHAPTER V. Singularity and the Double's Pale Ghost: From Despair to Pale Fire

CHAPTER VI. The Question of Realism

CHAPTER VII. Heaven, Hell, and the Realm of Art: Adas Dark Paradise

CHAPTER VIII. On the Dark Side of Aesthetic Bliss: Nabokov's Humanism

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

0-674-42148-5

OCLC:

1013936703