Simon Rowbery: "Is it not
Nabokov himself who enacts Barthes' 'death of the author' in Pale Fire? I
believe it is the novel whose criticism has moved beyond the intentions of
Nabokov the most within his canon because of the death of his authority in the
novel, predominantly by writing a novel of such complexity with multiple
characters in various fictional worlds. In Pale Fire, however, it can only be
said that the death of the author leads to the birth of the re-reader. Something
that Nabokov would appreciate. Perhaps this is where the ideologies converge
with their focus on re-reading a text."
JM: Good point on "the
death of the author leads to the birth of the re-reader" and the
convergence of several ideologies taking place - independently of
Nabokov's original intention.
Just as it happened when I read James
Twiggs assertion that the death of Shade is "not illustrative of any such
general idea as Barthes' "death of the author," I must puzzle over the
meaning of "enact the 'death of the author'. " I'm probably wrong in my assumption... For me,
the "death of the author" isn't an enacted posture, a strategy
which may be technically applied over a text, but it'd come
closer to a Weltanschauung or an "ideology," as you described it further
on, admitting its "inevitability" in a complex novel with various fictional
worlds, and inspite of Nabokov's deliberate control over his
text.
This is why I considered it possible that
Nabokov used the expression in a satirical vein for he'd not
accept his "disappearance" from his novel: let his characters suffer death,
not their creator. For him a bigger Gradus is necessary...