Abstract
Libertinism has to be understood as it was from the beginning, liberty of thinking in philosophy and liberty of body in erotics at the same time. The opposition of the socially accepted behaviour and the individual cultivation of pleasure was a choice from the times of antiquity. Libertinism positioned itself for épatage in order to be different from the masses (stay outside) and for forming an elite over the masses (outstand).Nabokov's case is relevant from the point of view of libertinism and dandyism – both in his art and his life. His Anglophile family with his father a liberal aristocrat gave him a solid background to outstand in both senses. In his oeuvre, French and British intertextual patterns played an important role for the constant presence of the libertine and dandy concept.Ada's utopic topography and out-of-society paradise-staging represent an ideal topos for free thought and love. Nabokov's poetics of uninhibited libido stands for his concept of freedom of Self and body, for the abolishing of moral conventions of “poshlost‴, for the “virtue or the vanity of virtue”. This finally results in the elimination of reality, a quest for the supreme realm, very similar to Viacheslav Ivanov's a realibus ad realiora.
Published Version
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