Pnin: Nabokov's Artistic Reality

With his consummate artistic skills, Vladimir Nabokov established his fame and status in the history of the twentieth-century American literature as a distinguished and outstanding master in postmodern literature. While Lolita came out as a controversial issue of the reading public, it should be noted that Nabokov is an artist who harbors a concept of art that is extremely different from the accepted one. Insisting on the combination of scientific accuracy and poetic passion together in his works of art, he had spent his whole life constructing his wonderland, with a reality only to be appreciated from the perspective of art. This sort of reality is extraordinary, even unprecedented, as it usually comes into being through his exploration on the relationships between several pairs of themes, such as memory and time, consciousness and reality, and pretense and truth. With these themes in mind, Nabokov never concerns about serious matters such as politics, morality or social responsibility; instead, he only cares about creating an aesthetic ecstasy out of his artistic work. In this sense, Nabokov's art, rather than his nationality, has become his passport among different nations.It is well known that Nabokov has an unexhausted zest for pursuing creativity and originality. He pursued the same goal when he was dealing with his fourth English novel Pnin, which also turned out to be a success. At the very beginning, however, fame did not come easily. With its simple plot line and loosely connected chapters, Pnin tended to impress people as a simple novella, consisting of a series of anecdotes, with the only connection in the same protagonist. Compared with other masterpieces, its artistic value is easily to be eclipsed. Fortunately, Nabokov is proved to be such a master of art who matches his fame that he never plays at any works created out of his effort. In recent years, attention on Pnin no longer sticks to character analysis or plot development; instead, it goes on to explore beneath the surface, such as the baffling narrative structure and reality with exquisite enigmatic designs. Trying to get apanorama idea of the artistic reality in this novel, this thesis tends to advance the discussion in these consecutive chapters:"Introduction","Truth in Reality"(Chapter One),"Subtle Narrative"(Chapter Two),"Enigmatic Designs"(Chapter Three),"Bitter Smile"(Chapter Four), and"Conclusion"."Introduction"offers some background information on the writing and the publication of Pnin, and a brief opening on the success of the novel. Chapter One presents Nabokov's artistic perception on the nature of reality: reality is accessible but it is relatively subjective; the key to acquire a sensible perception of reality is to keep discovering possible hidden designs. Chapter Two focuses on the narrative way the novel follows: the narrator keeps looming from time to time; his mysterious intervention forms another part of the artistic reality of the novel. Chapter Three turns to cope with those subtle designs imbedded in the text; these exquisite designs seem to be detached from one another but there do exist inner connections among them if they are closely examined. The previous chapters work together to foreground the protagonist, Pnin, discussed in Chapter Four. This is a Russian scholar exiled in America, kind-hearted and knowledgeable with an eccentric disposition. Living in the exotic environment, he constantly bumps into embarrassing situations either by some errors of understanding or judgment, unfortunately cutting himself as a comic wretched figure among his colleagues; in the light of readers, however, Pnin turns out to be the most engaging character in the novel, in whose fortunes and misfortunes we take a sympathetic interest. Finally"Conclusion"briefly summarizes the artistic values of Pnin and pays attention to the characteristics in literary genre of this novel. In a word, reflections on themes such as consciousness and reality, and extraordinary artistic skills such as style and narrative structure, combine together to generate creativity and originality in the works of Nabokov; and it is this unique artistic perception that underprops the abundant and amusing artistic world of Pnin, making it an extraordinary acquisition to the literary world.