Bruce Stone’s (UCLA) essay, “The Lyric Syllabus as Found Object,” describes an advanced writing course devoted to a controversial topic: the cognitive impact of literary reading, as represented by the works of Vladimir Nabokov. An overview of the class and its innovative assignments reveals how Nabokov’s work can accommodate a wide range of cognitivist approaches, including those of Lisa Zunshine (fiction as a test of “mind-reading” faculties), Joshua Landy (fiction as a stimulant of intellectual capabilities), and Alain de Botton (fiction as a form of armchair therapy). However, the essay culminates with a discussion of the course’s most novel feature: that it simulates, in its curriculum, the phenomenology of literary reading. Part chronicle, part criticism, bridging disciplines and crossing genres, this essay explores both the viability of cognitive literary studies and the possibility of merging aesthetic theory and instructional practice. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Shun’ichiro Akikusa’s “Nabokov and Laughlin: A Making of an American Writer” examines Vladimir Nabokov’s complex relationship with James Laughlin. After three years of rejection, Nabokov had finally found a publisher for his first English-language novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight: Laughlin’s progressive publishing house New Directions. Although often downplayed by Nabokov scholars, Laughlin was among the first publishers and editors to handle Nabokov in the United States, undoubtedly playing as great a role in naturalizing Nabokov in the “New World” as did Edmund Wilson. Laughlin’s distinct view of literature as “art for art’s sake” and New Directions’ promotion of modernism significantly shaped Nabokov’s public image in the 1940s. Nabokov utilized this brand image of New Directions, and went about displaying his many talents not only as a novelist but as a short story writer, poet, translator and critic, though he ultimately parted ways with New Directions for larger platforms after the runaway success of Lolita. In this paper, I will examine the more than 500 letters between Nabokov and Laughlin held by the Houghton Library (Harvard University) and the Berg Collection (the New York Public Library), in addition to a number of key paratexts and peritexts, including publisher’s blurbs and book jackets. In this way, I will attempt to shed new light on the literary “honeymoon” and discord between the two figures, in order to better understand Nabokov’s American years. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Dyche Mullins studies the prosody of Vladimir Nabokov’s poetry in “Conjuring in Two Tongues: The Russian and English Prosodies of Nabokov’s ‘Pale Fire’,” employing analytical tools described by Nabokov himself in Notes on Prosody to demonstrate how the poet wove cryptic Russian rhythms into his English verse. These ‘foreign’ rhythms mark themes of exile and dislocation, and help create the unsettling sense that another, unseen world lies close at hand (потусторонность). For example, the émigré professor of “An Evening of Russian Poetry” lectures to his audience in Russian rhythms, at first to illustrate his didactic points and then later when confronted by a spectral, “Russian something” that follows him everywhere. Similarly, the most concentrated Russian rhythm in “Pale Fire” is bracketed by a dying man who “conjures in two tongues” and a spirit who raps out messages from the afterlife. Finally, we discover that Charles Kinbote was right: we can actually see Jakob Gradus woven into the prosody of Pale Fire, riding up “…on the escalator of the pentameter." NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Haki Antonsson’s article “Pale Fire and Old Norse Literature” probes the role of Old Norse references and allusions in Pale Fire. The focus exclusively on Old Norse texts that are explicitly mentioned by name in the novel, most significantly poems from the so-called Poetic Edda and to a lesser extent Konungs skuggsjá ('The Royal Mirror'). In particular the article explores how direct references and indirect allusions to this corpus interact with some of the novel's principal themes, such as the 'woman spurned' theme in Kinbote's commentary as well as the sudden and tragic deaths of Shade and Hazel. But prior to Pale Fire the article deals with Old Norse references in Lolita and the short story, Solus Rex (which has been seen as a precursor of a kind to Pale Fire). Here also the emphasis is on the entwining of the Old Norse references with important themes and patterns rather than as simply exotic addition of 'mood-setting' elements. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Tim Harte’s “‘Transforming Defeat Into Victory’: Jack London and Vladimir Nabokov’s Glory” explores the role that Jack London played in Russian modernist culture, particularly within the work of Aleksandr Kuprin and Vladimir Nabokov. London, who fostered an unabashedly masculine literary persona, wrote prolifically about adventure, courage, wilderness, and athletics, all of which appealed to writers like Kuprin and Nabokov as they broadened the scope of Russia’s literary culture at the start of the twentieth century and in the post-Revolutionary period. London’s unprecedented, albeit fleeting popularity as a writer of fiction and non-fiction insured that he helped shape the development of Russian literature in meaningful ways, both democratizing it, as is clearly reflected in Kuprin’s fiction, and providing a vigorous, “manly” burst of energy for literature that a young Nabokov drew upon once in exile in Western Europe. In Nabokov’s 1932 novel Glory (Podvig), the influence of London and, in particular, his 1909 novel Martin Eden can be most notably discerned. Martin Eden, this article suggests, provided an important, unappreciated subtext for Glory, the novel that most vividly reflects Nabokov’s debt to the American novelist and to his unique, masculine brand of adventurism. While Nabokov never emulated London’s style per se or his ideological outlook, so much of Glory can be interpreted through the retrospective prism of Jack London and his once celebrated Martin Eden. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Graeme Arkell’s note entitled “Mislaid or Misdial: Misplacement of the Jelly Jars in Nabokov’s ‘Signs And Symbols’” attempts to approach – once again – the irresolvable ending of Nabokov’s most enigmatic short story. According to Arkell, the parents’ inoffensive birthday gift of jelly jars for their institutionalized son take on an ominous meaning in Nabokov’s short story, “Signs and Symbols” when the “mislaid” jars are linked by anagram to the “misdial” of telephone calls. Through a misunderstanding, the parcel is first mislaid by the mother who sends her husband back to their apartment alone with the gift instead of keys to enter their apartment. After waiting outside for his wife to arrive, the jellies are misplaced yet again when they are laid upon a table inside the parents’ apartment where the father proceeds to misuse them as though they are his own gifts. A correlation between these instances of the jars being mislaid and telephone misdials made by a girl to the parents’ residence becomes apparent. Both errors occur twice and, like the wrongly dialed telephone calls, a jelly jar label is also incorrect. Through these similarities, the mislaid jars foreshadow the two misdials and serve as a portent that the third call will be correctly dialed by a doctor informing them of their son’s suicide. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Shun’ichiro Akikusa’s “Nabokov and Laughlin: A Making of an American Writer” examines Vladimir Nabokov’s complex relationship with James Laughlin. After three years of rejection, Nabokov had finally found a publisher for his first English-language novel, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight: Laughlin’s progressive publishing house New Directions. Although often downplayed by Nabokov scholars, Laughlin was among the first publishers and editors to handle Nabokov in the United States, undoubtedly playing as great a role in naturalizing Nabokov in the “New World” as did Edmund Wilson. Laughlin’s distinct view of literature as “art for art’s sake” and New Directions’ promotion of modernism significantly shaped Nabokov’s public image in the 1940s. Nabokov utilized this brand image of New Directions, and went about displaying his many talents not only as a novelist but as a short story writer, poet, translator and critic, though he ultimately parted ways with New Directions for larger platforms after the runaway success of Lolita. In this paper, I will examine the more than 500 letters between Nabokov and Laughlin held by the Houghton Library (Harvard University) and the Berg Collection (the New York Public Library), in addition to a number of key paratexts and peritexts, including publisher’s blurbs and book jackets. In this way, I will attempt to shed new light on the literary “honeymoon” and discord between the two figures, in order to better understand Nabokov’s American years. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Dyche Mullins studies the prosody of Vladimir Nabokov’s poetry in “Conjuring in Two Tongues: The Russian and English Prosodies of Nabokov’s ‘Pale Fire’,” employing analytical tools described by Nabokov himself in Notes on Prosody to demonstrate how the poet wove cryptic Russian rhythms into his English verse. These ‘foreign’ rhythms mark themes of exile and dislocation, and help create the unsettling sense that another, unseen world lies close at hand (потусторонность). For example, the émigré professor of “An Evening of Russian Poetry” lectures to his audience in Russian rhythms, at first to illustrate his didactic points and then later when confronted by a spectral, “Russian something” that follows him everywhere. Similarly, the most concentrated Russian rhythm in “Pale Fire” is bracketed by a dying man who “conjures in two tongues” and a spirit who raps out messages from the afterlife. Finally, we discover that Charles Kinbote was right: we can actually see Jakob Gradus woven into the prosody of Pale Fire, riding up “…on the escalator of the pentameter." NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Haki Antonsson’s article “Pale Fire and Old Norse Literature” probes the role of Old Norse references and allusions in Pale Fire. The focus exclusively on Old Norse texts that are explicitly mentioned by name in the novel, most significantly poems from the so-called Poetic Edda and to a lesser extent Konungs skuggsjá ('The Royal Mirror'). In particular the article explores how direct references and indirect allusions to this corpus interact with some of the novel's principal themes, such as the 'woman spurned' theme in Kinbote's commentary as well as the sudden and tragic deaths of Shade and Hazel. But prior to Pale Fire the article deals with Old Norse references in Lolita and the short story, Solus Rex (which has been seen as a precursor of a kind to Pale Fire). Here also the emphasis is on the entwining of the Old Norse references with important themes and patterns rather than as simply exotic addition of 'mood-setting' elements. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Tim Harte’s “‘Transforming Defeat Into Victory’: Jack London and Vladimir Nabokov’s Glory” explores the role that Jack London played in Russian modernist culture, particularly within the work of Aleksandr Kuprin and Vladimir Nabokov. London, who fostered an unabashedly masculine literary persona, wrote prolifically about adventure, courage, wilderness, and athletics, all of which appealed to writers like Kuprin and Nabokov as they broadened the scope of Russia’s literary culture at the start of the twentieth century and in the post-Revolutionary period. London’s unprecedented, albeit fleeting popularity as a writer of fiction and non-fiction insured that he helped shape the development of Russian literature in meaningful ways, both democratizing it, as is clearly reflected in Kuprin’s fiction, and providing a vigorous, “manly” burst of energy for literature that a young Nabokov drew upon once in exile in Western Europe. In Nabokov’s 1932 novel Glory (Podvig), the influence of London and, in particular, his 1909 novel Martin Eden can be most notably discerned. Martin Eden, this article suggests, provided an important, unappreciated subtext for Glory, the novel that most vividly reflects Nabokov’s debt to the American novelist and to his unique, masculine brand of adventurism. While Nabokov never emulated London’s style per se or his ideological outlook, so much of Glory can be interpreted through the retrospective prism of Jack London and his once celebrated Martin Eden. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
Graeme Arkell’s note entitled “Mislaid or Misdial: Misplacement of the Jelly Jars in Nabokov’s ‘Signs And Symbols’” attempts to approach – once again – the irresolvable ending of Nabokov’s most enigmatic short story. According to Arkell, the parents’ inoffensive birthday gift of jelly jars for their institutionalized son take on an ominous meaning in Nabokov’s short story, “Signs and Symbols” when the “mislaid” jars are linked by anagram to the “misdial” of telephone calls. Through a misunderstanding, the parcel is first mislaid by the mother who sends her husband back to their apartment alone with the gift instead of keys to enter their apartment. After waiting outside for his wife to arrive, the jellies are misplaced yet again when they are laid upon a table inside the parents’ apartment where the father proceeds to misuse them as though they are his own gifts. A correlation between these instances of the jars being mislaid and telephone misdials made by a girl to the parents’ residence becomes apparent. Both errors occur twice and, like the wrongly dialed telephone calls, a jelly jar label is also incorrect. Through these similarities, the mislaid jars foreshadow the two misdials and serve as a portent that the third call will be correctly dialed by a doctor informing them of their son’s suicide. NOJ, Vol. XI, 2017.
