From:
"Lara Delage" <larotlarette@hotmail.com>
In the wake of Barbara Wyllie’s initiative, I am posting a synopsis of
my PhD dissertation, which was submitted in Cambridge last January. The
synopsis was written for academic purposes and may not convey, in its
assertiveness, the nuances in my thesis.
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Ultraviolet Darlings
Representations of Women in Nabokov's Prose Fiction
Lara Delage-Toriel
This study proposes to shed light on a heretofore neglected aspect of
Nabokov's fiction: his portrayal of women. It embraces the entire corpus of
his novels, as well as some of his short stories and non-fictional works.
Nabokov is renowned for his finely chiselled prose, sharpness of vision and
provocative slant of thought. Yet for all his stylistic and intellectual
originality, Nabokov's mode of characterization does not escape certain
archetypal and stereotypical patterns. This tendency is all the more
conspicuous in the case of female characters, who, despite being in constant
focus, never appear in his novels as dominant focalizers. The narrative
point of view in every one of Nabokov's novels is as distinctively male as
is his claim for absolute authority over his fictional worlds. This twofold
objectification of women has made Nabokov an ideal target for feminist
critics, yet surprisingly few have risen to the challenge. The reason for
this critical silence may lie in Nabokov's characteristic ambiguity. His
vision is a prismatic one, which refracts rather than reflects the reality
it refers to. My aim, which is not primarily feminist, is to investigate
various Nabokovian refractions of the feminine: the vulgar, the virtuous,
the muse, the mother. I examine the way in which Nabokov plays with these
familiar figures of femininity and confers upon them an individual aura,
turning them into his own 'ultraviolet darling[s]'. In my first chapter, I
gather around the notion of poshlost and the figure of Emma Bovary various
kinds of vulgar women. These are contrasted with a group of virtuous women,
who fail to achieve harmonious relationships with their male partners. In my
second chapter, I consider the muse figure and its implications for women's
role in Nabokov's artistic process. In my third chapter, I study Nabokov's
iconography of the maternal by examining various configurations of the
mother-child relationship in his fiction. My last chapter brings into
perspective the very notion of representation by dwelling upon the pictorial
politics framing the female portrait. Throughout my study, references to
Nabokov's relationships with women in real life draw these issues into
relief and help to illuminate both the distinctively personal and the more
traditional traits in Nabokov's delineation of the feminine.
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