Scholarly record
THE META-AESTHETIC FUNCTION OF THE GROTESQUE IN V.V. NABOKOV'S ARTISTIC THINKING
Abstract
This paper deals with the functions of the grotesque in V.V. Nabokov’s works as an artistic and theoretical concept in the associative-semantic aspect; the research proceeds from the perspectives of conceptual and structural-semiotic and cultural scientific methods. The scientific novelty of the paper lies in that such syncretism makes it possible to reveal a combination of grotesque imagery in the writer's texts, both in the spirit of substantive and mythological ideas, on the one less studied hand, and in terms of postmodernist game poetics, on the other. Expanding the semantics of the device allows us to explain the actualization of the motives of the absurdity of life, the reification of the animate, the combination of anthropomorphic, zoomorphic series in individual author's comparisons, as well as to show the historical-genetic link of methods of modeling “other” reality and the images of heroes with an altered consciousness in the works by the writer and the world literature classics. Nabokov considered the nomination and classification of literary devices to be one of the essential structural elements of literary analysis, therefore our approach is in line with the object of research. Objective: to show how the meta description of the writer's device changes to the formulation of the laws of the grotesque world and the comparison of its artistic nature with the meta-aesthetic functions of literature as an art form. In this sense (this is the main idea and the conclusion of the paper), it is obvious how V. Nabokov's individual author’s conceptual and terminological system with its principles of distortion and ambivalence (the concepts of “prism”, “pattern”, “arabesque”, “palindrome”) coordinates with the aesthetics of the grotesque.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References10
Neviarovich N. Grotesque and ritual laughter in the reception of contemporary Russian prose (historical-genetic aspect), Collection of scientific works on philosophy and philology, Russia, vol. 13, p 223-229, 2013.
Paramonov B. & Tolstoi I. Bedlam as Bethlehem. Conversations of fans of the Russian word, Russia, p 512, 2017.
Bakhtin M.M. Francois Rabelais in the history of realism, Russia, pp 11-516, 2008.
Wang X. Vladimir Nabokov’s Literary theory from Perfections of Comparative literature and world Literature, Foreign Language Education, China, vol. 38/issue 1, pp 101-104, 2017.
Wang X. The research of Nabokov’s literary theory, Frontiers of literary theory, China, vol. 16, pp 50-59, 2016.
Nabokov V.V. Collection of works: in 4 volumes, Russia vol. 4, pp 477, 1990.
Bitsilli P.M. The revival of allegory. Tragedy of Russian culture: Research, articles, reviews, Russia, pp 438-450, 2000.
Connely F.S. The Grotesque in Western Art and Culture: The Image at play, UK, pp 120-122, 2012.
Nabokov V.V. Nikolai Gogol. Lectures on Russian Literature, Russia, pp 45-114, 2017.
Nabokov V.V. Lectures on foreign literature, Russia, p 544, 2014.
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.