Discourse and Ideology in Nabokov’s Prose ed. by David H. J. Larmour (review)

Abstract

560 Reviews Discourse and Ideology in Nabokov's Prose. Ed. by David H. J.Larmour. (Studies in Russian and European Literature, 8). London and New York: Routledge. 2002. ix+176 pp. $80. ISBN 0-415-28658-1. One of the best-known phrases by Nabokov, often reproduced in works about the author, is the intention of the protagonist of Nabokov's last Russian novel, The Gift, to write as ifon the brink of parody. Critics often tend to use this phrase to preface a discussion of Nabokov's own use of parody and puns. It is, however, predominantly the author as parodying, and inevitably controlling, that emerges, and much less at? tention is given to parodying Nabokov himself, i.e. using his own terms to destabilize the interpretation he wishes the reader to adopt. Nabokov is usually admired forhis trickstercommand rather than derided forit. Yet trickstercommand occupies a whole spectrum ranging from amusement to danger, and it is this spectrum that is addressed in this new collection of articles on Nabokov's writings. The introduction by David H. J. Larmour delineates the direction ofthe volume, and at the same time exposes the tension inherent in it. Larmour explains that at the hub of the book is the view that 'ideology is a web of discursive effects in the real world of the reader's lived experience' (p. 1). Such a statement assumes that reading is to be located outside the lived experience and, moreover, outside reality.The reality of reading is exiled to the margins of the reader's experience, yet the very fact that reading and text are emphasized throughout the volume assumes a preoccupation with a mental construct not less real than the extra-literary phenomenal world sur? rounding it. The attempt to encamp 'the discursive utterances and practices in and around' the text (p. 3, my emphasis) is initially marked as paradoxical when the tech? nique favoured is that of textual analysis, yet the reader is called upon to concentrate on the extra-textual. The emphasis on Nabokov's writing being anything other than ideologically naive is fully justified. Both in his fictional and non-fictional writings Nabokov has made his political and social views clear, and the volume's stress on the fact that such tendentiousness is of the same kind as other engaged forms of writing?socialist, metaphysical, queer?against which Nabokov had much to say is an important declaration. However, such a correction in the perception of Nabokov's views does not necessarily entail an ideological view of all of the aspects of his fictional writing. It is important to strike a balance between being awe-struck and dazzled by Nabokov's manipulative command so as to ignore logical and moral contradictions in his writing, and equating Nabokov's literary ceuvre with a political agenda. I would like to stress thatthe volume makes forfascinating reading, and mypolemics with it should, in fact, accentuate this. While not agreeing with quite a number of points made in the various chapters, I enjoyed reading and pondering upon them. The centrepiece of the volume is a pair of articles containing juxtaposed readings of Lolita, in which the tension I discuss here is apparent in its more glaring and exciting form. Elizabeth Pantoe accuses Lolita of being a text that, especially in the context of the classroom, constitutes an attack on victims of child molestation. Tony Moore claims that in spite of Humbert's attempt to control the narrative, he is not able to do so as the novel gives full narrative voice to Dolores. Both views are dramatically challenging and brilliantly argued. Other chapters emphasize the extra-literary ideo? logical context of Nabokov's writing: Galya Diment looks at the relationship between Nabokov and Wilson; Paul Ellen Miller studies classical dichotomies in the percep? tion of culture and gender and the way they are illustrated in Pale Fire; and D. Barton Johnson and Suellen Stringer-Hye portray the influence of Nabokov's writing on popular culture, especially in the US. The remaining chapters give prominence to a textual reading: Brian D. Walter looks at the duality of ideological opposition in Bend Sinister, Galina Rylkova delineates trances of Kuzmin...