The Models of Space, Time and Vision in V. Nabokov's Fiction: Narrative Strategies and Cultural Frames by Marina Grishakova (review)

Abstract

784 SEER, 85, 4, OCTOBER 2OO7 the reader to the almost identical lines inTsar Saltan, but not to the fact that the firstline also appears inRuslan and Liudmila, and contains references to both mead and beer. Tempest, whose version is not without merit, includes themead but ditches the beer. This book is beautifully produced, with fine illustrations by Simon Brett. It is a welcome and worthy addition to the library of Russian literature in translation offered by Angel books. MaidenheadMichael Pursglove Grishakova, Marina. TheModels ofSpace, Time and Vision inV.Nabokov's Fiction: Narrative Strategiesand CulturalFrames. Tartu Semiotics Library, 5. Tartu University Press, Tartu, 2006. 324 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 10.23 (paperback). In this studyMarina Grishakova sets herself an ambitious task: 'to describe certain types of time, space and point-of-view construction in Vladimir Nabokov's fiction and to explore theirmodeling role in the artistic, philo sophical and scientific discourses of themodernist and early postmodernist age' (p. 11).The volume is organized around fiveconceptual models detailing particular structures and narrative functions of time or space, with various of Nabokov's novels examined alongside them. Grishakova's background in semiotics, deriving largely fromRussian Formalism and the 'Tartu-school' is apparent throughout what transpires to be a densely theoretical study. The seventy-page introduction, in which discussion of Nabokov is dwarfed by long surveys of narratology, poses several recurring problems concerning the relationship between text and theory in her approach. One is the possibility that in her numerous forays into a vast range of theoretical perspectives, Grishakova might lose sightof their actual relevance to the literary texts.The other is an ambiguity concerning the nature of the linkage between the 'cultural frames' which the author describes, and Nabokov's own narrative strategies. In several enlightening instances Grishakova uses intertextual or archival evidence to suggest Nabokov's direct engagement with particular thinkers or cultural forms, but often the linkage seems to be of a less convincing, ahistorical typological form. The first chapter of the study examines various models of time, such as the spiral and the 'specious present,' employed by Nabokov, principally with reference to Mashen 'ka {Mary)and Ada. Nietzsche, Bergson and Proust supply the chief correlatives. Nabokov's explicit engagement with these figureswill be well known to many scholars, but some archival research reveals here some interesting lesser known figures which featured prominently in Nabokov's research for his project 'Notes for the Texture of Time' which eventually metamorphosed into chapter four of Ada. In the second chapter of Grishakova's book, the author turns her attention to overlaps between scientific and literary modes of observation in the twentieth century, and surveys a range of theoretical perspectives on modernist constructions of REVIEWS 785 subjectivity from Bakhtin and Todorov toHenry James and Percy Lubbock among many others. Eventually the chief concern of the chapter emerges as the tension between text and image, and their mutually compensatory relationship. This is explored through Henry James's The Turn of theScrew, Nabokov's Sogliadatai (TheEye), and Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Although an original and fertilearea of enquiry isdiscernable here the precise contours ofGrishakova's thesis remain obscured, as does Nabokov's importance within a crowded theoretical and cultural matrix. The third chapter, 'models of vision', more successfullymarries literary, historical and theoretical perspectives by examining how cinematic and photographic narrative strategies are implicated with the failure of artistic vision for Nabokov. In particular, an uncharacteristically sustained reading of KoroT Dama Valet (King,Queen, Knave) with regard to modernist notions of automatism shows Grishakova's critical methodology at itsbest, negotiating novels with a sense of focus and purpose which is elsewhere lacking. Next, a strangely short fourth chapter launches a promising enquiry intoNabokov's modernist inflection on the 'double' or ''doppelganger" motif, using theoretical tools derived from Iser and Lacan. It is cut short however, after a cursory glance at Otchaianie (Despair). The fifthand final chapter ismore satisfying, as the author turns to 'Multidimensional Worlds'. A discussion of notions of 'outside' and 'inside' in relation to narrative subjectivity leads to a vigorous engagement with the critical debate over Nabokov's use of themobius stripas structural device. Then an insightful section on Bend Sinisteruncovers some useful...