The Relation of Nabokov’s Psychologism to the Tradition of Russian Literature

Abstract

When we deal with psychologism, we usually limit ourselves to its approved forms, by default denying psychological qualities of “non-traditional&8j1; literature. According to the author of the article, this is due to the fact that psychologism of the first third of the 20th century has not yet become the subject of thorough literary reflection. The main disadvantage, as it seems, is an isolated approach to different forms of psychologism: there appears no overlap between the existing paradigms. The article offers a morphological and dynamic investigation of the psychological method from Tolstoy to Nabokov, where, according to this article, what is considered to be a marginal technique in “traditional&8j1; works becomes magistral in “non-traditional&8j1; ones. Tolstoy’s works therefore foreshadows the dynamic understanding of consciousness. Tolstoy goes beyond the “classical&8j1; paradigm and anticipates intuitionism, which will be developed and reworked in the novel “The Gift&8j1;. Nabokov picks up the intuitive line and develops it in a lyrical and musical manner, consistently taking the act and the system of reasons beyond the psychological description. Nabokov’s psychologism in this sense shifts the focus, and Henri Bergson’s teaching serves as a basis for the new psychologism, the principles of which were already noticeable in Tolstoy’s prose. The proposed conclusions are based on examples from the texts of Tolstoy and Nabokov, where an analytical approach is yielding to a synthetic one.