The Models of Space, Time and Vision in V. Nabokovs Fiction: Narrative Strategies and Cultural FramesMarina Grishakova belongs to the younger generation scholars of the Tartu-Moscow school of semiotics. Her book is part of a semio-narratological tradition of a single author or a single work research that tackles issues of wider theoretical import: applicability of the concept of 2modeling3 in the humanities, theory of mimesis and the function of experimental literature in (post)modernist culture. By drawing on Y. Lotman’s conception of artistic models, the book adopts the semiotic perspective on modeling as an open-ended heuristic process underlying the logic of discovery and creative thinking. The book discusses the models of time and memory in modernist culture (Nietzsche’s and Bergson’s philosophy of time, Minkowski’s research on the psychopathological types of temporality) and their relevance to Nabokov’s fiction; popular-scientific notions of serialism and the fourth dimension; thematizations of the observer in modernist philosophy and arts; visual 2prostheses3 and 2machines3 (Eco), particularly the 2camera vision3 metaphor, its relation to Bergson’s notion of automatism and the popular idea of the criminal use of hypnosis. Vision is thematized also as a means of seduction and noncoercive control. Even before Foucault, Baudrillard and other critics of modernity, Nabokov noticed that advertising, political propaganda and erotic seduction alike employ implicit forms of suggestion. The book revises Rorty’s dilemma of 2autonomy3 and 2solidarity3 as applied to Nabokov’s work and offers new readings. It considers categories of narrative poetics as forms of cultural encoding that broaden and transform reader’s modes of perception and sense-making. Micro-models active in certain contexts or in the works of certain authors function as mobile interfaces between individual sensibilities and complex cultural chrono- and spatio-types where time and space take on conceptual meaning. (This title is the second revised edition, available online only. The web shop refers to the first edition, which is available as a paper monograph.). |
Contents
Acknowledgements | 9 |
The Models of Time | 72 |
The Model of the Observer | 134 |
Copyright | |
5 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic artistic auctorial Bakhtin becomes Bend Sinister Bergson camera camera obscura character chess cognitive consciousness construction creative cultural devices diegetic discourse double dream elements émigré episode experience external fictional world film focalization frame function Ganin Gift governess human Humbert's iconic imaginary interpretation invisible language letter linguistic literary literature Lolita Lotman Luzhin Mary means memory metafictional metaphor mimetic mirror Möbius strip modernist motif movement Nabokov's fiction Nabokov's novel narrative narratology narrator narrator's notion object observer optical Pale Fire past pattern perception perspective philosophy physical poetics point of view possible worlds present protagonist Proust reader reality recollection reverse Russian Ryan semantic semiotic Sign Systems Studies space spatial specious present spiral story strategies structure Tammi temporal textual thematized theory Toker Transparent Things University Press Uspensky verbal vision visual Vladimir Vladimir Nabokov writing Yuri Yuri Lotman Москва