Phillips, Ursula (ed.). Polish Literature in Transformation (review)

Abstract

SEER, 92, 4, OCTOBER 2014 752 Although eminently readable, the book is marred by a few shortcomings. In the first place, a large portion of the volume (except for the section devoted to critical reception) consists of papers — including the first round table — that were published shortly after the novel’s release. This will not be a problem for those new to The Original of Laura, but Nabokov’s faithful readers, and Nabokov scholars, are likely to be familiar with the chronology and the controversy surrounding the novel’s publication, as well as its more famous, or infamous, reviews. Boyd’s ‘Afterword’, although updated and enriched by its brief postscript, also reproduces an earlier article (‘Nabokov Lives On’, The American Scholar, spring 2010). This relative paucity of genuinely new material makes the book seem, in places, outdated. The volume’s lack of interest in the genetic dimension induced by the peculiar format of The Original of Laura is also somewhat surprising. The innovation of giving readers direct access to the facsimile of Nabokov’s manuscript is briefly discussed in the initial round table debate but does not spark any detailed analysis. It might have been interesting, for example, to have dealt with the problematic status of the cards entitled ‘First’ and their relation to the opening chapter, which challenges the idea (largely admitted by critics) that the version of the initial chapter as it appears in the book is definitive. Lastly, and embarrassing though it is for me to be stressing this, it is difficult to account for the fact that the introduction fails to mention that a book entitled Aux origines de Laura: Le dernier manuscript de Vladimir Nabokov (co-authored by Yannicke Chupin and myself) was published in 2011 (Presses de l’Université Paris Sorbonne) and reviewed in SEER in April 2012. This omission (corrected in Boyd’s ‘Afterword’) gives the erroneous impression that this volume is the very first academic response to the novel. Despite these imperfections, Shades of Laura is to be recommended. Captivating, full of valuable information and well worth reading it offers a useful entry into the history and structural enigmas of Nabokov’s last, unfinished novel. Département des Études du Monde Anglophone René Alladaye Université de Toulouse le Mirail Phillips, Ursula (ed.). Polish Literature in Transformation. With the assistance of Knut Andreas Grimstad and Kris Van Heuckelom. Polonistik im Kontext, 2. LIT, Zurich and Berlin, 2013. ii + 307 pp. Notes. Bibliographies. Index. €29.90 (paperback). This collection of seventeen essays was born out of the conference, ‘Polish Literature Since 1989’, held in 2011 at University College London’s School of REVIEWS 753 Slavonic and East European Studies. In her introduction, Ursula Phillips states that the volume’s purpose is to attempt to ‘capture, account for and analyse some of the developments that have taken place in literary production in the Polish language since the fundamental change to Poland’s political and economic system since 1989’ (p. 3). She intends it to be accessible for readers who may not be entirely familiar with the Polish language, though it does assume a level of knowledge about Polish history. For Phillips, the book is ‘an initial tool’ and not a ‘final interpretation’ (p. 3). As such the volume proves to be an excellent contribution to Polish literary studies in English. The chapters are loosely organized into sections on migration, gender studies, memory studies, drama and poetry. Within individual chapters there is much crossover between these themes, and include discussions on the Holocaust, Polish/Jewish relations and feminism. The first chapter by Jerzy Jarzębski briefly categorizes a number of texts in terms of how their characters are involved in inter-generational conflicts. Uilleam Blacker does much the same, except focusing on works that fit under the theme of how lost urban areas are remembered. The next essay by Kris Van Heuckelom reflects a similar structuralist inclination for categorization as the previous two, but moves towards a deeper analysis that is informed by critical theory. He discusses several novels as well as the TV serial, Londoners, all of which concern the Polish émigré experience since Poland’s entrance into the EU. For Van Heuckelom these works...