Steve Blackwell: "If Nabokov felt that many of his potential readers might be swayed in advance by Pop-Freud, then he was also working specifically against that pop-Freudian voice in his readers.  In the twenties and even into the thirties, when Nabokov was forming his major artistic commitments, Pop-Freud's presence on the cultural scene was enormous."

 

JM: I always had the impression that, despite Nabokov's constantly denying it, there was always a social-reformist's or a philosopher's ambition didactically interwoven in his novels. It's impossible for me to remember it correctly right now but... wasn't that also Rorty's view? And wasn't Edmund Wilson one who sometimes criticized Nabokov's social satires (I have in mind his moving comments about what he considered to be Bend Sinister's shortcomings)? I'm sure there is a wide bibliography to be consulted on this matter.

 

btw: The two Freud-related poems quoted by Jim Twiggs provided me with a perfect example of how Freud's contribution could be understood by some ( cf. W.H.Auden's 'In Memory of Sigmund Freud'), and how pop-culture re-created it (Dorothy Parker's very modern and cynical "The Passionate Freudian to His Love," following a voluminous trend related to Marlowe's passionate-shepherd's song)...A brave new world...