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[Fwd: Re: Nabokov's 18th century interests] (fwd)
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Below is a message cross-posted from another list (the 18th Century
Interdisciplinary Discussion). I was wondering if Nabokovians can answer
some of the questions posed by Colin. I will be happy to forward all
responses to C18.
Lisa Zunshine
> Nabokov's preoccupations are also, in some way, Wordsworthian - I'm
> thinking of the beautiful *Speak, Memory* and also and in particular
> *The Real Life of Sebastian Knight*. I wonder if V.N. ever had
> anything to say about Wordsworth? Of course, Nabokov's interest in
> the past, and in what we do with it when we re-member it, is very
> different to Wordsworth's. Nabokov seems to be concerned with the
> multiplcity of the past, with the myriad ways in which its story
> might be tailored and told - and I don't think this is just
> postmodern affectation on his part - like Conrad (although perhaps
> in a less exreme sense), he was a writer in a state of national and
> cultural dislocation. As Frank pointed out, he literally reinvented
> his past himself, when he moved to America.
>
> Also, I'm sure I've read somewhere an article on the connections
> between the eighteenth-century conceptions of mobility (the Grand
> Tour, the politically disaffected restlessness of the Romantics) ,
> and the mobility celebrated in American twentieth-century "road"
> narratives (of which *Lolita* is surely an example). Any ideas here?
>
> Colin Winborn
> University of Leeds
Interdisciplinary Discussion). I was wondering if Nabokovians can answer
some of the questions posed by Colin. I will be happy to forward all
responses to C18.
Lisa Zunshine
> Nabokov's preoccupations are also, in some way, Wordsworthian - I'm
> thinking of the beautiful *Speak, Memory* and also and in particular
> *The Real Life of Sebastian Knight*. I wonder if V.N. ever had
> anything to say about Wordsworth? Of course, Nabokov's interest in
> the past, and in what we do with it when we re-member it, is very
> different to Wordsworth's. Nabokov seems to be concerned with the
> multiplcity of the past, with the myriad ways in which its story
> might be tailored and told - and I don't think this is just
> postmodern affectation on his part - like Conrad (although perhaps
> in a less exreme sense), he was a writer in a state of national and
> cultural dislocation. As Frank pointed out, he literally reinvented
> his past himself, when he moved to America.
>
> Also, I'm sure I've read somewhere an article on the connections
> between the eighteenth-century conceptions of mobility (the Grand
> Tour, the politically disaffected restlessness of the Romantics) ,
> and the mobility celebrated in American twentieth-century "road"
> narratives (of which *Lolita* is surely an example). Any ideas here?
>
> Colin Winborn
> University of Leeds