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the late Claudia Rattazzi Papka
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 8:26 AM
Subject: the late Claudia Rattazzi Papka
I found the abstract (see bottom of message) of Claudia Rattazzi Papka's theory regarding Ada very intriguing, but all my attempts to locate her came to nought. I finally discovered that two poems that she had contributed to the Michigan Quarterly Review were published posthumously in the Spring 2003 issue.
If any one has a copy of this paper or a suggestion as to how one could be obtained, I would be very grateful.
CK
Since MLA and AATSEEL are fast approaching, I am rerunning the Nabokov
programs at both conferences which are taking place in Washington D.C. 27
-30 December, 1996. Happy Holidays to all and all the very best wishes, GD
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > #341. FAMILY/ANTIFAMILY IN NABOKOV'S WORK; Sunday, December 29, 1996
> > 8:30-9:45, Lanai 152, Sheraton Washington
> > Arranged by the Vladimir Nabokov Society
> > Presiding: Eric Hyman, Fayettesville State Un.
> > ---------------------------------------
> > -------------------------------------------------
> > 1. "The Mirrored Self: Incestuous Fictions in Nabokov's _Ada_"
> >
> > Claudia Rattazzi Papka,
> > Columbia University
> > <crp4@columbia.edu>
> >
> >
> > Vladimir Nabokov's _Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle_ takes
> > place around the turn of the century in a world called Antiterra, a
> > planet resembling our own as an mirrored image does. Reflection is
> > indeed one of the central images of the novel, most simply explicable
> > as a metaphor for the incestuous love of Van and Ada Veen which the
> > novel recounts. If one examines more closely the mirrorings,
> > doublings, anagrams, and allusions which permeate the novel, however,
> > it becomes possible to argue that the incestuous relationship itself
> > is but a reflection, and a metaphor, in turn, for the fiction-writing
> > process.
> > The Veen family tree, presented in epic fashion at the novel's
> > beginning, conceals Van and Ada's true, shared parentage, but reveals
> > a suspicious mirroring in the names and birthdates of their putative
> > parents, which has led one critic to suggest that the two sets of
> > parents are simply one set "seen from different perspectives.."[1]
> > That this creation of two from one may be the central _modus operandi_
> > of the "sibling planet"[2] casts doubt upon Antiterra's own reality, and
> > thus upon the reliability, and sanity, of the narrator himself, Van
> > Veen. Led by this doubt, I examine the scene of Van and Ada's
> > adolescent consummation and find in its refelections and doublings,
> > including the narrative doubling in which Van and Ada debate "in the
> > margins" about Van's recreation of their shared past, the foundation
> > for another doubt: Does Ada herself really exist, or is she but a
> > creation of Van's mirroring mind?
> > The answers to these questions are found in the madness that runs
> > through the impossible mirrorings of Van's family tree; in the echoes
> > of Van's first summer with Ada in his second, where several scenes are
> > replayed with the crucial substitution of his real cousin, Lucette,
> > for Ada; and in the mirroring Antiterran parodies of literary works by
> > Paul Verlaine and Guy de Maupassant, as elucidated by the anagrammatic
> > alter ego of Nabokov himself in _Notes to_ Ada _by Vivian Darkbloom_. The
> > clues are scattered throughout Van's memoir, and lead me to conclude
> > that the metatextual analogy Van uses to describe his youthful
> > maniambulation act is indeed an accurate description of the nature of
> > Ada's existence--as _Ada_:
> >
> > The essence of the satisfaction belonged rather to the
> > same order as the one he later derived from self-imposed,
> > extravagantly difficult, seemingly absurd tasks when V.V.
> > sought to express something, which until expressed had
> > only a twilight existence (or even none at all--nothing
> > but the illusion of the backward shadow of its immanent
> > impression).[3]
> >
> > Van has had a incestuous encounter with his cousin, Lucette, and
> > this transgression has led not only to her suicide, but also to Van's
> > madness. This madness inspires the rewriting of Van's life, his
> > family, and his world through a series of doublings which create
> > Antiterra, Van's antifamily (which includes his sister and double,
> > Ada), and, finally, the novel itself.
> >
> > Notes
> >
> > 1. Charles Nicol, "_Ada_ or Disorder," in _Nabokov's Fifth Arc_, eds.
> > J. E. Rivers and C. Nicol (Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1982), 240.
> >
> > 2. Vladimir Nabokov, _Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle_ (New York:
> > McGraw Hill, 1969), 244.
> >
> > 3. ibid 196
> > ---------------------------------------------------
> >
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 8:26 AM
Subject: the late Claudia Rattazzi Papka
I found the abstract (see bottom of message) of Claudia Rattazzi Papka's theory regarding Ada very intriguing, but all my attempts to locate her came to nought. I finally discovered that two poems that she had contributed to the Michigan Quarterly Review were published posthumously in the Spring 2003 issue.
If any one has a copy of this paper or a suggestion as to how one could be obtained, I would be very grateful.
CK
Since MLA and AATSEEL are fast approaching, I am rerunning the Nabokov
programs at both conferences which are taking place in Washington D.C. 27
-30 December, 1996. Happy Holidays to all and all the very best wishes, GD
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > #341. FAMILY/ANTIFAMILY IN NABOKOV'S WORK; Sunday, December 29, 1996
> > 8:30-9:45, Lanai 152, Sheraton Washington
> > Arranged by the Vladimir Nabokov Society
> > Presiding: Eric Hyman, Fayettesville State Un.
> > ---------------------------------------
> > -------------------------------------------------
> > 1. "The Mirrored Self: Incestuous Fictions in Nabokov's _Ada_"
> >
> > Claudia Rattazzi Papka,
> > Columbia University
> > <crp4@columbia.edu>
> >
> >
> > Vladimir Nabokov's _Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle_ takes
> > place around the turn of the century in a world called Antiterra, a
> > planet resembling our own as an mirrored image does. Reflection is
> > indeed one of the central images of the novel, most simply explicable
> > as a metaphor for the incestuous love of Van and Ada Veen which the
> > novel recounts. If one examines more closely the mirrorings,
> > doublings, anagrams, and allusions which permeate the novel, however,
> > it becomes possible to argue that the incestuous relationship itself
> > is but a reflection, and a metaphor, in turn, for the fiction-writing
> > process.
> > The Veen family tree, presented in epic fashion at the novel's
> > beginning, conceals Van and Ada's true, shared parentage, but reveals
> > a suspicious mirroring in the names and birthdates of their putative
> > parents, which has led one critic to suggest that the two sets of
> > parents are simply one set "seen from different perspectives.."[1]
> > That this creation of two from one may be the central _modus operandi_
> > of the "sibling planet"[2] casts doubt upon Antiterra's own reality, and
> > thus upon the reliability, and sanity, of the narrator himself, Van
> > Veen. Led by this doubt, I examine the scene of Van and Ada's
> > adolescent consummation and find in its refelections and doublings,
> > including the narrative doubling in which Van and Ada debate "in the
> > margins" about Van's recreation of their shared past, the foundation
> > for another doubt: Does Ada herself really exist, or is she but a
> > creation of Van's mirroring mind?
> > The answers to these questions are found in the madness that runs
> > through the impossible mirrorings of Van's family tree; in the echoes
> > of Van's first summer with Ada in his second, where several scenes are
> > replayed with the crucial substitution of his real cousin, Lucette,
> > for Ada; and in the mirroring Antiterran parodies of literary works by
> > Paul Verlaine and Guy de Maupassant, as elucidated by the anagrammatic
> > alter ego of Nabokov himself in _Notes to_ Ada _by Vivian Darkbloom_. The
> > clues are scattered throughout Van's memoir, and lead me to conclude
> > that the metatextual analogy Van uses to describe his youthful
> > maniambulation act is indeed an accurate description of the nature of
> > Ada's existence--as _Ada_:
> >
> > The essence of the satisfaction belonged rather to the
> > same order as the one he later derived from self-imposed,
> > extravagantly difficult, seemingly absurd tasks when V.V.
> > sought to express something, which until expressed had
> > only a twilight existence (or even none at all--nothing
> > but the illusion of the backward shadow of its immanent
> > impression).[3]
> >
> > Van has had a incestuous encounter with his cousin, Lucette, and
> > this transgression has led not only to her suicide, but also to Van's
> > madness. This madness inspires the rewriting of Van's life, his
> > family, and his world through a series of doublings which create
> > Antiterra, Van's antifamily (which includes his sister and double,
> > Ada), and, finally, the novel itself.
> >
> > Notes
> >
> > 1. Charles Nicol, "_Ada_ or Disorder," in _Nabokov's Fifth Arc_, eds.
> > J. E. Rivers and C. Nicol (Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1982), 240.
> >
> > 2. Vladimir Nabokov, _Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle_ (New York:
> > McGraw Hill, 1969), 244.
> >
> > 3. ibid 196
> > ---------------------------------------------------
> >