----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 9:35 AM
Subject: Nabokov sighting
Recently someone in the list asked about Vladimir
Nabokov and Bakhtin and how much did VN know about the latter.
One of Bakhtin
specialists, Michael Holquist, wrote a primer called "Dialogism" (
Routledge,Taylor& Francis Group, London and NY),2002.
On page 123 there is a reference by Holquist to VN
concerning Gogolīs "Notes of a Madman".
I quote:
" Gogolīs laying bare of chronology, or story, as
a conventional device ( even if a necessary device) in this particular tale
typifies much of his other work as well: so much so, that Nabokov, in his
little volume on Gogol ( Gogol, New Directions, 1958), merely imitates his hero
in beginnning with his death and ending with his birth. Gogolīs
experiments with story/plot opposition are pertinent to any attempt to
understand the history of chronotopes, in their capacity as recurring,
transcultural, narrative patterns" .
Best,
Jansy