Evolution of the mystical metaprose by V. Nabokov (V. Sirin): Russophone period

UDC 82.09 BBК 83.011 DOI 10.20339/978-5-905998-08-9-2021-1-192Zl   Zlochevskaya, Alla V. Evolution of the mystical metaprose by V. Nabokov (V. Sirin): Russophone period. — Academic publication. — Moscow : ALMAVEST, 2021. — 192 р. — (Library of the journal “Philological Sciences”). Volume 2. In her second book,  Dr. Alla Vladimirovna Zlochevskaya continues her study of mystical metaprose, a literary movement of the early twentieth century, the most brilliant example of which is Nabokov’s prose. The author studies the Russophone period of V. Nabokov’s work, from “Mary” to “Gift” (1926–1938), and reveals general tendencies in the evolution of the genre model of Nabokov’s mystic metanovel. The book is addressed to a wide intellectual audience, primarily scholars and students of philological faculties, as well as to all those interested in Nabokov’s heritage and Russian literature.   ISBN 978-5-905998-08-9

Contents

Preface 7

Introduction. “Fictitious Reality” or “Reality of Fiction”? 9

Chapter 1. Novels by V. Nabokov (V. Sirin) “Mary” (1926)

and “King, Queen, Knave” (1928):

larva and pupa as the heralding of a butterfly 25

Chapter 2. “The Defense” (1929–1930) —

“The First Real Butterfly of Nabokov” 45

Chapter 3. “Glory” (1932):

the Concept of the Heroic in the Metaphysical and Metaliterary Aspects 69

Chapter 4. “Camera Obscura” (1933):

a Correlation of Ethical — Transcendental — Aesthetic Reveals 86

Chapter 5. “Despair” (1934):

V. Nabokov / Sirin’s Novel “Despair”:

Non-Exsistence of God and Metaliterary Anti-Eternity 101

Chapter 6. “Invitation to a Beheading” (1936):

Spiritual Individuality in the Focus of Metaphysical and Metaliterary Issues 124

Chapter VII. “The Gift” (1938):

Creative Memory as a Dominant of the Artistic Process 144

Conclusion. “Spiral — the Spirituation of the Circle” 177

Bibliography 183

Subject Index 191