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THOUGHTS: Black giant
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Matthew Roth clarifies that it was he who drew our attention to the "black giant" in PF:
Dear Sergei,
It was I, not Jansy, who advanced a theory about the "black giant." Is it
true that VN didn't like folklore and never employs allusions to folklore?
Citation? Might there have been other versions of this tale elsewhere in
Eastern Europe? I tend to doubt that "black" was a racial reference, as you
imply. Kinbote fetishizes his gardener's race (thinks of him as moorish)
but I don't see any evidence that he sees black people as threatening.
That's why the phrase "black giant" strikes me as odd--it shouldn't be a
simple reference to race (meaning a large black man), so it must come from
somewhere else. Then again, I've been fooled before and no doubt will be
fooled again.
Best,
Matt Roth
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Dear Sergei,
It was I, not Jansy, who advanced a theory about the "black giant." Is it
true that VN didn't like folklore and never employs allusions to folklore?
Citation? Might there have been other versions of this tale elsewhere in
Eastern Europe? I tend to doubt that "black" was a racial reference, as you
imply. Kinbote fetishizes his gardener's race (thinks of him as moorish)
but I don't see any evidence that he sees black people as threatening.
That's why the phrase "black giant" strikes me as odd--it shouldn't be a
simple reference to race (meaning a large black man), so it must come from
somewhere else. Then again, I've been fooled before and no doubt will be
fooled again.
Best,
Matt Roth
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm