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Nabokov on Japan (answer to query)
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NABOKV-L writes:
> Dear List,
> This is my first submission to the list, with two
> questions.
>
> 1. Did Nabokov make references to Japan, Japanese
> persons, or Japanese literature? Japanese culture and
> literature are a vast, fertile universe, and yet, did
> someone like VN find nothing interesting of note, even
> in stereotyped form, as in "Madame Butterfly"?
Ada contains few references to things and persons Japanese:
- Baron d'Onsky, "a spiritual Samurai" who had gone to Japan forever;
- Japanese valet of Uncle Don;
- Van being "emphatically not Japanese" at refusing to take shared bath;
- japanned pieced of "Alfavit" playing set;
- lampshade's parchment with Japanese dragons;
- a gueridon in the library (China or Japan?);
- Japanese student at gaze on the steps of Counterstone Hall, and much,
much more.
Nikita Danilov
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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
> Dear List,
> This is my first submission to the list, with two
> questions.
>
> 1. Did Nabokov make references to Japan, Japanese
> persons, or Japanese literature? Japanese culture and
> literature are a vast, fertile universe, and yet, did
> someone like VN find nothing interesting of note, even
> in stereotyped form, as in "Madame Butterfly"?
Ada contains few references to things and persons Japanese:
- Baron d'Onsky, "a spiritual Samurai" who had gone to Japan forever;
- Japanese valet of Uncle Don;
- Van being "emphatically not Japanese" at refusing to take shared bath;
- japanned pieced of "Alfavit" playing set;
- lampshade's parchment with Japanese dragons;
- a gueridon in the library (China or Japan?);
- Japanese student at gaze on the steps of Counterstone Hall, and much,
much more.
Nikita Danilov
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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