Semiotics of V. Nabokov’s artistic language in the light of N. Goodman’s theory of symbolization

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problems of V. Nabokov’s author’s style, considered from the standpoint of semiotics. Russian-language prose created by V. Nabokov during the Berlin period of his life is used as research material: the novels “Mary”, “King, Queen, Knave”, “The Luzhin Defense”, “Glory”, “Camera Obscura”, “Despair”, “Invitation to a Beheading”, “The Gift” and stories from the collection “The Return of Chorb”. The features of the Nabokov’s text verbal sign, as well as the visual and expressive capabilities of the verbal images in the writer’s works are considered. Thanks to the use of N. Goodman’s general theory of symbols and Aage A. Hansen-Löwe’s theory of intermediality as a methodological basis, the possibility of interpreting Nabokov’s poetics as “flickering,” metaphorical, “polycode” opens up. As a “code” of Nabokov’s images, not only verbal signs themselves are considered, but also their translation into signs of other arts that are not directly related to words - painting, cinema, architecture. As a result of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that V. Nabokov’s verbal sign strives for maximum visual expressiveness, taking on some of the properties of the iconic sign. Thanks to the chosen approach, new results were achieved in the study of V. Nabokov’s artistic language.