« Nabokov’s Women: The Silent Sisterhood of Textual Nomads is the first book-length study to focus on Nabokov’s relationship with his heroines. Essays by distinguished Nabokov scholars explore the multilayered and nomadic nature of Nabokov’s women: their voice and voicelessness, their absentness, the paradigm of power and sacrifice within which they are situated, the paradox of their unattainability, their complex relationship with textual borders, the travel narrative, with the author himself.
By design, Nabokov’s woman is often assigned a short-term tourist visa with a firm expiration date. Her departure is facilitated by death or involuntary absence, which watermarks her into the male protagonist’s narrative, granting him an artistic release or a gift of self-understanding. When she leaves the stage, her portrait remains ambiguous. She can be powerfully enigmatic, but not self-actualized enough to be dynamic or, for even where the terms of her existence are deeply considered or her image beheld reverently, her recognition seems to be limited to the “Works Cited” register of the male narrator’s personal life. As a result, Nabokov’s texts often feature a nomadic woman who seems to live without a narratorial homeland, papers of her own, or storytelling privileges.
This volume explores the “residency status” of Nabokov’s silent nomads—his fleeting lovers, witches, muses, mermaids, and nymphets. As Nabokov scholars analyze the power dynamic of the writer’s narrative of male desire, they ponder—are these female characters directionless wanderers or covert operatives in the terrain of Nabokov’s text? Whereas each essay addresses a different aspect of Nabokov’s artistic relationship with the feminine, together they explore the politics of representation, authorization, and voicelessness. This collection offers new ways of reading and teaching Nabokov and is poised to appeal to a wide range of student and scholarly audiences. »
With contributions of Sofia Ahlberg, Marie Bouchet, Julian W. Connolly,
David Larmour, David Rampton, Matthew Roth, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Lara Delage-Toriel, Olga Voronina,
Alisa Zhulina.
Christine Raguet. “El arte de la traducción de Vladimir Nabokov. Problemas de recepción y transmigración en la traducción”. Estudios de Teoría Literaria. Revista digital: artes, letras y humanidades, 6 (12), 2017, 25-37.
ACTUALITÉS : Chercheurs EnchantésLos propósitos de este artículo son: i) analizar las relaciones de Vladimir Nabokov como autor multilingüe con la traducción al enfrentarse al exilio, y con la publicación de una de sus novelas en una lengua en que sabía escribir; ii) explorar las actitudes de Nabokov hacia la traducción en uno de sus libros, sus deseos de ser reconocido como autor y de pulir su estilo en la nueva lengua-cultura; iii) presentar factores como la identidad personal y cultural, y también las necesidades financieras de manera ligada al exilio y como elementos significativos en el proceso de traducción; iv) discutir el impacto de la reescritura en un autor alerta al reconocimiento internacional y en una búsqueda obvia de nuevos valores estéticos. Nabokov no es un caso único, pero su situación y sus reacciones son suficientemente representativas de las dificultades que surgen al escribir en una lengua ajena.
The aims of this article are: i) to analyze the relations of Vladimir Nabokov as a multilingual author with translation when faced with exile and with the publication of one of his novels in a language in which he could write; ii) to explore Nabokov’s attitude towards the translation of one of his books, his desires to be recognized as an author and to polish his style in the new culturelanguage; iii) to present factors like personal and cultural identity, and also financial needs as linked to exile and as significant elements in the translating process; iv) to discuss the impact of rewriting in an author seeking international recognition and in an obvious quest for new aesthetic values. Nabokov is not a unique case, but his situation and reactions are quite representative of the difficulties raised when changing one’s language of composition.
https://fh.mdp.edu.ar/revistas/index.php/etl/article/view/2331
Vladimir Nabokov, Letters to Vera, Translated and edited by Olga Voronina & Brian Boyd, Alfred A. Knopf, 2015.
ACTUALITÉS : Nouvelles nabokoviennes« No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer is quite a
s beguiling as that of Vladimir Nabokov’s to Véra Slonim. She shared his delight in life’s trifles and literature’s treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humor of any woman he had met. From their first encounter in 1923, Vladimir’s letters to Véra form a narrative arc that tells a half-century-long love story, one that is playful, romantic, pithy and memorable. At the same time, the letters tell us much about the man and the writer. We see the infectious fascination with which Vladimir observed everything—animals, people, speech, the landscapes and cityscapes he encountered—and learn of the poems, plays, stories, novels, memoirs, screenplays and translations on which he worked ceaselessly. This delicious volume contains twenty-one photographs, as well as facsimiles of the letters themselves and the puzzles and doodles Vladimir often sent to Véra. »
Soutenance de thèse – Sophie Bernard-Léger
ACTUALITÉS : Chercheurs EnchantésLe lundi 13 novembre 2017, Sophie Bernard-Léger a soutenu sa thèse de doctorat, intitulée « La création de soi par soi : origine, identités, transgressions dans l’oeuvre de Vladimir Nabokov, Romain Gary et Philip Roth ».
Le jury était composé de Luba Jurgenson (directrice, Sorbonne Université), Carole Matheron (co-directrice, Université Paris 3), Isabelle Poulin (présidente, Université Bordeaux Montaigne), Laure Troubetzkoy (Sorbonne Université), Philippe Zard (Université Paris Nanterre), Yves-Charles Grandjeat (Université Bordeaux Montaigne).
Ben Blatt, Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve. What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing. Simon & Schuster, 2017.
ACTUALITÉS : Nouvelles nabokoviennesAbout the book :
« Data meets literature in this “enlightening” (The Wall Street Journal), “brilliant” (The Boston Globe), “Nate Silver-esque” (O, The Oprah Magazine) look at what the numbers have to say about our favorite authors and their masterpieces.
There’s a famous piece of writing advice—offered by Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, and myriad writers in between—not to use -ly adverbs like “quickly” or “angrily.” It sounds like solid advice, but can we actually test it? If we were to count all the -ly adverbs these authors used in their careers, do they follow their own advice? What’s more, do great books in general—the classics and the bestsellers—share this trait?
In the age of big data we can answer questions like these in the blink of an eye. In Nabokov’s Favorite Word Is Mauve, a “literary detective story: fast-paced, thought-provoking, and intriguing” (Brian Christian, coauthor of Algorithms to Live By), statistician and journalist Ben Blatt explores the wealth of fun findings that can be discovered by using text and data analysis. He assembles a database of thousands of books and hundreds of millions of words, and then he asks the questions that have intrigued book lovers for generations: What are our favorite authors’ favorite words? Do men and women write differently? Which bestselling writer uses the most clichés? What makes a great opening sentence? And which writerly advice is worth following or ignoring?
All of Blatt’s investigations and experiments are original, conducted himself, and no math knowledge is needed to enjoy the book. On every page, there are new and eye-opening findings. By the end, you will have a newfound appreciation of your favorite authors and also come away with a fresh perspective on your own writing. “Blatt’s new book reveals surprising literary secrets” (Entertainment Weekly) and casts an x-ray through literature, allowing us to see both the patterns that hold it together and the brilliant flourishes that allow it to spring to life. »
Vladimir Nabokov, Lettres à Vera, édition établie par Olga Voronina et Brian Boyd, traduit du russe par Laure Troubetzkoy, Paris, Fayard, 2017.
ACTUALITÉS : Nouvelles nabokovienneshttps://www.fayard.fr/litterature-etrangere/lettres-vera-9782213686585
Description de l’éditeur : « Vladimir Nabokov et sa femme Véra se sont rencontrés en 1923, à Berlin, où leurs familles respectives avaient fui le pouvoir bolchevique. Tout au long du demi-siècle que dure leur mariage, ils ne sont séparés que rarement, mais alors il lui écrit chaque jour : ainsi quand Véra part se soigner dans un sanatorium de la Forêt Noire, quand Vladimir rend visite à sa famille réfugiée à Prague, où quand Véra tarde à le rejoindre à Paris. Plus tard, ses conférences dans le Sud des États-Unis suscitent de nouvelles lettres. Dans toute cette correspondance, pour nous à sens unique – Véra ayant détruit ses propres lettres –, on voit la passion de Nabokov pour sa femme, sa vie quotidienne dans le milieu de l’émigration russe à Berlin, les bouleversements auxquels tous deux sont confrontés dans leur vie matérielle et affective, le dénuement qui est le sien lors de ses débuts à Paris, l’intérêt croissant suscité par son œuvre auprès des éditeurs et d’un public éclairé, le soutien indéfectible que lui apporte Véra.
Ces lettres, outre ce qu’elles révèlent sur l’homme, nous font découvrir le laboratoire de l’écrivain – son énergie créatrice, la pléthore de sujets qui surgissent et disparaissent, l’intensité de son travail – et on y reconnaît l’originalité de son style : sa veine parodique, poétique, sa vivacité et ses jeux de mots. »
Isabelle Poulin, Le Transport romanesque. Le roman comme espace de la traduction, de Nabokov à Rabelais, Paris, Classiques Garnier, coll. « Perspectives comparatistes », 2017.
ACTUALITÉS : Chercheurs EnchantésRapporté à la notion de traduction qui s’invente à la Renaissance en même temps que le roman moderne, ou aux menaces de mort pesant sur des écrivains, le transport romanesque révèle la force d’un art du langage sans frontières – étudié dans cet ouvrage, de Nabokov à Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Proust et Calvino.
Vous pouvez consulter la table des matières ici.
Udith Dematagoda, Vladimir Nabokov and the Ideological Aesthetic. A Study of his Novels and Plays, 1926– 1939, Oxford, Peter Lang, 2017.
ACTUALITÉS : Chercheurs EnchantésThe perception of Nabokov as an apolitical writer is one which the author encouraged throughout the latter part of his career in his non-fictional writings and in the small number of well-rehearsed interviews that he gave. When questions of ideology and politics have arisen in scholarship, they have only been featured in passing or have merely re-confirmed the author’s self-designation as an «old-fashioned liberal». When we consider that Nabokov lived through some of the most traumatic historical ruptures of the past century then this lack of reference to ideology in the critical literature appears quite revealing.
Through the analysis of works which have previously received little attention as well as new perspectives on better known works, this book demonstrates how ideology and politics were ever-present and had an indelible effect on Nabokov’s literary aesthetics.
Martin Amis, The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump and Other Pieces, 1996-2016, Jonathan Cape, 2017.
ACTUALITÉS : Nouvelles nabokoviennesArticle du Times disponible ici.
Article du Guardian disponible ici.
Yannicke Chupin. Nabokov’s Canon: From ‘Onegin’ to ‘Ada’ by Bozovic, Marijeta. The Slavonic and East European Review. Vol. 95, No. 4 (October 2017), pp. 740-742.
ACTUALITÉS : Nouvelles nabokoviennesReview
Elena Rakhimova-Sommers (Editor). Nabokov’s Women: The Silent Sisterhood of Textual Nomads. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2017.
ACTUALITÉS : Nouvelles nabokoviennes« Nabokov’s Women: The Silent Sisterhood of Textual Nomads is the first book-length study to focus on Nabokov’s relationship with his heroines. Essays by distinguished Nabokov scholars explore the multilayered and nomadic nature of Nabokov’s women: their voice and voicelessness, their absentness, the paradigm of power and sacrifice within which they are situated, the paradox of their unattainability, their complex relationship with textual borders, the travel narrative, with the author himself.
By design, Nabokov’s woman is often assigned a short-term tourist visa with a firm expiration date. Her departure is facilitated by death or involuntary absence, which watermarks her into the male protagonist’s narrative, granting him an artistic release or a gift of self-understanding. When she leaves the stage, her portrait remains ambiguous. She can be powerfully enigmatic, but not self-actualized enough to be dynamic or, for even where the terms of her existence are deeply considered or her image beheld reverently, her recognition seems to be limited to the “Works Cited” register of the male narrator’s personal life. As a result, Nabokov’s texts often feature a nomadic woman who seems to live without a narratorial homeland, papers of her own, or storytelling privileges.
This volume explores the “residency status” of Nabokov’s silent nomads—his fleeting lovers, witches, muses, mermaids, and nymphets. As Nabokov scholars analyze the power dynamic of the writer’s narrative of male desire, they ponder—are these female characters directionless wanderers or covert operatives in the terrain of Nabokov’s text? Whereas each essay addresses a different aspect of Nabokov’s artistic relationship with the feminine, together they explore the politics of representation, authorization, and voicelessness. This collection offers new ways of reading and teaching Nabokov and is poised to appeal to a wide range of student and scholarly audiences. »
With contributions of Sofia Ahlberg, Marie Bouchet, Julian W. Connolly,
David Larmour, David Rampton, Matthew Roth, Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Lara Delage-Toriel, Olga Voronina,
Alisa Zhulina.