EDITOR's NOTE. Nassim Ballestrini (Johannes Guttenberg University, Mainz)  has very kindly sent NABOKV-L  the program and abstracts of the above conference, one of several conferences put on by the St. Petersburg Nabokov Museum in honor of the Nabokov Centenary last year. I translate the titles and provide brief content descriptions derived from the Russian abstracts.
 
1.  Vadim Stark    (Pushkin House)
"Nabokov's Russian Roots: German Topography and Toponymics in his Work."
    An analysis of German family & place names  shows how VN chose them to have special significance within the framework of the particular work.
 
2. E. Raush-Gernet (The Russian Genealogical Society)
"The Korfs & Rausch von Traubernbergs: Nabokov Ancestors and Relatives"
    Family genealogy and discussion of why some were singled out in VN's autobiography (andothers were not).
 
3.  Nassim Balestrini (Johannes Gutenberg Un., Mainz)
"The Image of Nabokov's Life and Work in the German Press:
    Focusing on "non-academic" newspaper reviews of VN's Works from LOLITA onward, the paper points to the rise of two camps: those who preferred the work to N's personal qualities vs. those who reserved judgement on the man but addressed the works or connections between views, life, and works.
 
4. Galina Glushanok  (The Nabokov Foundation, Petersburg)
"N. I. Astrov. "An Account of V. D. Nabokov. March 28, 1932.
    Astrov was an associate of VN senior in political circles both in Russia and emigration. His wife, S.V. Panova, a leader of the Cadet Party) wrote an article about V.D. Nabokov on the 10th anniversary of his murder. The unpublished account was found in Baxmet'ev Archive at Columbia.
 
5. D. Zimmer (DIE Zeit, Hamburg)
"Nabokov's Dislike for Germany" 
    Ties Nabokov's dislike of Germany with the rise of the Nazis and remarks the loving detail with which he described various German scenes providing what some think to be one of the best portraits of Berlin in the 20s & 30s.
 
6. Johanna Trzeciak (University of Chicago)
"Decoding Suffering"
        VN's story  "Signs and Symbols" has been much discussed. Trzeciak suggests that attempts to riddle out the meaning via the various clues are misdirected. The solution should be sought in its "system of silences" connected with the two holocaust survivors.
 
7. Boris Averin (St. Peterburg State University)
"'Couleur local'  in _King, Queen, Knave_"
     Argues that KQKn, in spite of VN' professed antipathy for all things German, is based in th German Romantic tradition, particularly the works of Hoffman and Tieck with their theme of the automaton.  
 
8. Igor Smirnov (Konstanz Univ, Munich)
" Art a Lion"
        Argues that in _Despair_ VN  was subverting the fate of Mayakovsky (who had recently committed suicide) in his character the artist Ardalion.
 
9.A. Yanovskii, St. petersburg Univ.)
"Nabokov's German Novels: King, Queen, Knave,  Camera obscura, Despair"
    Outlines a series of features that define these works as a separate group within the Nabokov canon.
 
10.  Lyuba Tarvi (Univ. of Helsinki)
"Nabokov's Choice: Fate and Bilinguilism"
    Examines a series of bilingual writers and ponders the question why Nabokov was so reluctant to switch from Russian. Suggests that it was a reluctance to accept the loss of Russia.
 
11. E. Shvedov (St Petersburg Union of Scholars)
" Nabokov's Chess Sonnets"
    Examines the position of the sonnet form in Russia and N's occasional use of it. Points to his "Chess Sonnets" as among the best in Russian.
 
12. N. Teletova (The Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture & Architecture)
" Wagner's 'Ring of the Nibelungen' and Nabokov's 'Ada'"
        Argues that  Wagner drew on Scando-Germanic myth in his 'Walkyries' as did Vn in ADA and, further that VN used an episode from Wagner's life in the lives of Van Veen and Ada.
 
13. L. Bugaeva (St. Peterburg State University)
"Nabokov, Wagner, and German Romanticism"
        Points to  Wagnerian subtexts in several Nabokov works. The pair shared the master theme of the relationship of the world of reality with the world of imagination.
 
14. V. Polishchuk (St Petersburg State University)
"Nabokov and German Cinematography"
        Examines the meaning and origin of "film names" in his "German" novels and the protypes of films and film images mentioned by Nabokov.
 
15. S. Slivinskaya (The Nabokov Foundation)
"Nabokov's _Despair_  in Fassbinder's Film Version"
 
16. Daniel Rippl (Slavic Institute, Munich)
" 'The Orange Paradise of the Past' and 'Russian Berlin': A Topographical Stroll through "The Gift"
 
17. Annelore Engel-Braunschmidt (Slavic Institute, Keele Univ.)
   "Prose -- or Belletristica not about Berlin"
        A survey of various writer's views of VN's attitude towards Germany. Also ponders the question whether Russian writings in Berlinof the 20s was a continuation of pre-revolutionary Russian literature or the beginning of a new style.
 
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Dieter Zimmer, the dean of German Nabokovians, presented a special lecture entitled "Mimicry in nature and Art"