Restoration of time: Henry Bergson and Vladimir Nabokov

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to interpret the idea of “restoring time”, common to the texts of the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov and the French intuitionist philosopher Henri Bergson. The concept of “restoration of time” in Vladimir Nabokov’s texts, viewing it through the lens of Henri Bergson’s philosophy is explored. According to Nabokov “time is essentially memory in the process of its unfolding”. Moreover, that memory itself is a dynamic and never-changing process. Therefore, the conventional notion that restoring the past is simply about retrieving previous “moments” does not hold true in Nabokov’s approach. As a result of studying the phenomenon, it is concluded that in Nabokov’s system the restoration of time (the past) should become the restoration of the very movement of our memories, constantly “flowing” to the present. The reconstruction of time (the past) should focus on capturing the very movement of our memories, which continuously flow from the past to the present. Bergson referred to this movement as the basis of “pure memory” phenomenon, understood as the constant pressure of memories on the present and as the essence of “duration”: genuine inner time, that cannot be divided into moments, but rather is an uninterrupted ever-growing stream of our impressions. Thus, the Bergson’s philosophy effectively addresses numerous Nabokovian issues, both peripheral and central.