Transparency in V. Nabokov’s Story “The Enchanter”

About the author:

Anastasiia O. Drozdova, Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Senior Lecturer, Researcher, Russian and Foreign Literature Department, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; an.o.droz@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5728-142X

Abstract:

This article studies the perceptual effect of “transparency” in The Enchanter, Nabokov’s last story written in the Russian language. The research goal is to determine the forms of Nabokov’s meta-description, associated with the poetological problem of artistic development in the period of language transition. The research subject is the perceptual space of the story.

Analyzing the perceptual imagery has required using the structural-semantic method and Yu. Levin’s experience of classification of Nabokov’s narrative techniques.

The author concludes that transparency is a constructive principle which forms 1) the conflict (the charlatan struggles with the enchanter); 2) the combination of different perceptual modes important for the creation of a plot about a blind character; 3) a discrete artistic space; 4) the dynamics of the perceptual and the estimating points of view. This principle is represented by the sensory contaminations, ellipses, and distinctive perceptual images with the semantics of transparency. The choice of ways in which transparency perception is created directly depends on the problem of the author’s identity.

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