Nomina nuda tenemus: Postmodernist Method in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire
| Thesis title in Czech: | Nomina nuda tenemus: Postmodernistická metoda v Pale Fire od Vladimíra Nabokova |
|---|---|
| Thesis title in English: | Nomina nuda tenemus: Postmodernist Method in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire |
| Key words: | Postmodernismus|Vladimír Nabokov|postmoderní román |
| English key words: | Postmodernism|Vladimir Nabokov|postmodern novel |
| Academic year of topic announcement: | 2020/2021 |
| Thesis type: | Bachelor's thesis |
| Thesis language: | angličtina |
| Department: | Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK) |
| Supervisor: | Stephan Delbos, M.F.A., Ph.D. |
| Author: | hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept. |
| Date of registration: | 18.11.2020 |
| Date of assignment: | 19.11.2020 |
| Administrator's approval: | not processed yet |
| Confirmed by Study dept. on: | 09.12.2020 |
| Date and time of defence: | 08.09.2021 09:00 |
| Date of electronic submission: | 13.08.2021 |
| Date of proceeded defence: | 08.09.2021 |
| Submitted/finalized: | committed by student and finalized |
| Opponents: | doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil. |
| Guidelines |
| Abstract: The main objective of this BA thesis is to provide a detailed analysis of Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire as a postmodernist novel. As there does not exist a singular definition of a “postmodernist novel” due to the epistemological reluctance of literary theorists and philosophers to link this signifier with a pre-defined signified, several concepts were chosen to contribute to the framework to the undertaken task: Umberto Eco’s Kant and the Platypus and Reflections on The Name of the Rose, Jacques Derrida’s Writing and Difference and Roland Barthes’ The Death of the Author. If we apply what Nabokov encouraged in respect to narration, i.e. rereading and deconstructing in the manner of Derrida, Pale Fire is an outstanding example of when reading backwards – or in that respect, in any other direction – proves to go nowhere: the perspective undergoes infinite regression. In the case of Pale Fire, the reader is encouraged to rereading intrinsically by the novel’s composition. The poem “Pale Fire” is followed by Charles Kinbote’s commentary; therefore, the implication, also suggested by Kinbote, is either to consult the commentary after having read the poem or read the poem whilst consulting his apparatus criticus. However, whichever of the possibilities the reader opts for, he arrives at a rather unsettling ground – they lead to unequivocal subversion of the suggestion that there is a close link between the poem and the commentary. An important pointer to this prove to be Kinbote’s faltering scholarly skills: momentarily he appears to be an omniscient narrator who is able to quote from poems existing only in manuscripts which are not at hand, while unable and careless to quote from Shakespeare. This first sign implies a vaster discrepancy between the narrator’s version and the state of events which can be explored also through recurring symbols which are supposed to support the overall cohesion of the narrative, but they in fact cause the contrary. By this can be gradually inferred that the plot is but a universe only parallel with reality, which leaks in through Kinbote’s momentary awareness of his lying. He unintentionally introduces all three of his identities: Kinbote, the King of Zembla and Botkin. However, whichever name we choose for him, the final step to unravelling the façade of Kinbote’s narrative raises a new set of epistemological objections. These negate the possibility that the Kinbotian cosmos could logically operate regardless of which interpretation and identity is chosen. This unsettling conclusion of any aim for a definite and deterministic interpretation leads to a set of philosophical questions concerning the intrinsically postmodernist method applied in the novel. Apart from exploring the structure – or a non-structure – that allows for this prima facie deconstruction of the novel, this BA thesis will also examine the function of various symbols and intertextual allusions with reference to the abovementioned philosophical framework, as well as potential religious contexts. |
| References |
| Barthes, Roland. “The Death of the Author”. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. London and New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Belletto, Steven. “The Zemblan Who Came in from the Cold, or Nabokov’s ‘Pale Fire’, Chance, and the Cold War”. ELH, vol. 73, no. 3, n.d., pp. 755-780. EBSCOhost, Boyd, Brian. Nabokov’s Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years. Princeton, NJ: The Princeton University Press, 1990. Cash, Conall. “Picturing Memory, Puncturing Vision: Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire”. The Goalkeeper: The Nabokov Almanac, Academic Studies Press, Brighton, MA, 2010, pp. 124–151. JSTOR, Corn, Peggy. “Combinational Delight: The Uses of the Story within a Story in Pale Fire”. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, vol. 188, Gale, 2007. EBSCOhost, Derrida, Jacques. Writing and Difference. London: Routledge, 1993. Eco, Umberto. Reflections on The Name of the Rose. London: Secker and Warburg, 1985. Eco, Umberto. Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition. Boston: Mariner Books, 2000. Edelstein, Marilyn. “Pale Fire: The Art of Consciousness”. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, vol. 188, Gale, 2007. EBSCOhost, Galef, David. “The Self-Annihilating Artists of Pale Fire”. Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 31, pp. 421-437. JSTOR, Charney, Maurice. “Adopting Styles, Inserting Selves: Nabokov’s Pale Fire”. Connotations, no. 1, 2014, p. 27. EBSCOhost, McCarthy, Mary. “A Bolt from the Blue”. Pale Fire. London: Penguin Books, 1991. Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Lectures on Literature. Ed. Fredson Bowers. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. |