Abstract
REVIEWS 151 compelling analysis of the relationship between Lolitaand Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. This innovativereadingoftheHumbertHumbert/Lolita relationship displacesthe 'stigma of sexism' (p. I6I) that has pursued Nabokov ever since Lolita's publication and emphasizes a dimension of Nabokov's aesthetics which has significantconsequences not only for any future reading of Lolita but also the subsequent and highly controversialAda.Don BartonJohnson's essay on Rupert Brooke consolidates this new English perspective, examining Brooke's role as an inspirational figure, particularly for the character of Martin Edelweiss in the Cambridge novel, Glorg, whilst the extent of his impact on Nabokov's imagination can also be measured by his reemergence in ne RealLifeofSebastian Knight and Look attheHarlequins!, and by the 'crucial' role he played in providing the 'Platonic reformulation of what would become Nabokov's "master theme"', namely, 'death and the hereafter, or potustoronnost "(p. 193). To conclude the volume, Alexander Dolinin discusses Nabokov's antihistoricism , which complements Leona Toker's essay, and John Burt Foster Jr presents a refined definition of poshlust'in the light of the philosophies of two contemporary cultural critics, Adorno and Malraux. Considering the variety of subjects discussed in these essays, Connolly has produced a balanced volume which more than satisfies its remit. The essays demonstrate not only the richness of Nabokov's texts and the enormous potential they offer for continued analysis, but also their ability to withstand a diverse range of critical approaches and to yield new and significant revelations. School ofSlavonic andEastEuropean Studies BARBARA WYLLIE University College London McMillin, Arnold. Belarusian Literature in the 1950S and 19605. Releaseand Renewal.Bausteine zur Slavischen Philologie und Kulturgeschichte. Volume A: SlavistischeForschungen.Neue Folge, 28. B6hlau, Cologne, Weimar and Vienna, 1999. vii 315pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. DM 78.oo:sFr7I.00: oS 569.oo. ARNOLD MCMILLIN has earned an outstanding reputation in the study of Belarusian literature, being the only Western Slavist who has devoted a considerablepartof his scholarlyworkto thissubject.His new book continues his earlier Histogyof Belorussian Literature: FromIts Originsto thePresent Day (Giessen, 1977). No other substantialpublicationon thissubjecthas appeared since, which typifiesthe general neglect of Belarusianliteratureby European and American Slavists.So, this volume, as well as another one on Belarusian literaturein the seventies,eightiesand earlynineties, announced as forthcoming in the Introduction,willfilla real gap. Aftera shortsummaryof the development of Belarusianliteraturefromthe eleventh centuryuntilthe Second WorldWar(pp. 2-5) therefollowtwo main sections, The Fifties (pp. 7-76) and the Sixties (pp. 77-i82) in which the poetry, prose and drama of these two decades are treated in consecutive chapters. Four more chapters on the prominent writers Ivan Mielesh I52 SEER, 79, I, 2001 (pp. I83-204), Vasil Bykau (pp. 205-30), Ivan Ptashnikau(pp. 231-42) and Vladimir Karatkievich (pp. 243-82) conclude this part of the volume, to which are added very useful bibliographicalreferences (pp. 283-94) and an index of names and titles. In the first section, general remarkson the development of poetry in the Fiftiesare interwovenwith shortbiographicaland bibliographicalsketcheson a number of authors.This section also includes discussionsof texts and their themes. The more significant of these authors (five poets and three prosewriters )are given special chapters comprising three to four pages apiece. In the second section general remarks and discussion of minor authors are grouped into chapters with titles such as War, Patriotism, Village Prose, Innovation, Experimentation,and so on. Generaltrendswhich occurduringthetwodecadesaregivencorresponding subtitles:'Emergence of Darkness'for the Fifties, 'Traditionand Innovation' for the Sixties. The chapters on the four prominent authorsof the sixties are also labelled in a similarway: 'The Epic Redeemed', 'The Pain of Truth'and so on. In addition to a greatnumber of summariesof texts of differentgenres, the author lets the reader enjoy a wealth of quotations from these texts. Those from poetical texts are cited in Belarusian (with English translations in footnotes), whereas prose texts are given in English only. They enable the reader to draw his own conclusions regardingthe place of the authorswithin the development of Belarusianliteratureand how theymay be evaluatedfrom a comparativepoint of view. Since the generaldiscussionsfocus on authors,it is impossible to avoid an overlap of periods. One considerable advantage of this is that many books from the 1930s, 1940S as well as from the I970S and I980s are also mentioned...
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