Transcending Time And Ego In Art: Nabokov's Artistic Ideas Influenced By Bergson

The French philosopher Henri Bergson is one of Nabokov's favorite thinkers all throughout his life. Bergson's ideas have influenced Nabokov in many aspects, from worldview to aesthetics and ethics. Therefore, to take a close look into the connection between the two men's ideas may provide a deeper understanding of many of Nabokov's unique artistic ideas. One theory of Bergson that exerts great influence on Nabokov is his theory on "duration". Nabokov's rejection to space-tainted time and generalization are all results of the influence from this theory.According to Bergson, "duration" means the ever-changing state of human perception which is characterized by heterogeneity and continuity. Heterogeneity means that the consciousness is changing ceaselessly and is different at every moment. The continuity means that although consciousness is different at every moment, it is still an organic whole and cannot be divided into several by units like hours, minutes, and seconds. People often cut matters in space but the flow of consciousness cannot be cut like that mechanically. This flow of consciousness, in the Bergsonian sense, is the real time, the "duration", which is essentially distinct from the notion of space.Nabokov accepts Henri Bergson's preference of psychological time, the "duration", rather than physical time, or applied time that is counted by clock and watch. This theory of "duration" about time influences Nabokov's metaphysics and helps to form his fundamental worldviews. Hence, he derives some other aesthetical and ethical ideas from the theory and explores the transcendence of time and ego in his art.Firstly, he tries to transcend time through his art. Under the influence of Bergson's theory, Nabokov believes in the prominence of the past and explores the role of memory in art. According to Bergson, people can get a hold of their own past and it is possible to restore the past as long as they reserve a precise memory. The future, or the future about the psychological state, however, is impossible to predict such as in the case of astronomical phenomena because it hasn't been experienced and is not a part of the "duration". That's why Nabokov doesn't believe in the future and many of his works explore the theme of the past time and memory's efforts on the restoration of time. For him, memory is the only efficient tool to make one's past restored and help one to enjoy the timeless happiness in artistic creation.Then, Nabokov explores the transcendence of ego in his art. This exploration derives from Henri Bergson's division of two kinds of multiplicities based on his theory of "duration". Bergson points out that there are two kinds of multiplicities in consciousness: one is the qualitative multiplicity, and the other is the quantitative multiplicity. The former refers to the natural mood of consciousness with its different states permeating into one another rather than being artificially separated by our notion of space. The consciousness therefore is an organic whole and can not be divided into certain single independent conscious states. However, the language which is static and unable to catch the conscious flow tends to divide the conscious states into "several" and thus makes them a kind of quantitative multiplicity. As a result, those qualitative changes would become static, just like static matters juxtaposed in space, rather than the ever-changing flow of consciousness. This division exposes the stiffness of daily language which is often empty and generalized. Daily language reverses the order of people's cognition. Under its influence, people oftentimes recognize things through static language and ignore the ever-changing inner perception. Hence, the static language replaces those subtle perceptions based on unique inner states. The language manipulated by linguistic artists, however, is essentially different from this kind of daily language. Linguistic artists organize and create language according to their unique inner perceptions and represent their different inner worlds through their unique styles. In this sense, Nabokov finds an affinity in his ideas with Bergson's theory for he also hates generalizations and empty words due his own epistemology as well as his family tradition. That's why Nabokov rejects moral teachings and general ideas in novels and appreciates unique style of individual works in his aesthetics. However, Nabokov does not accept Bergson's idea entirely. He is critical to the solipsism that is hidden in the theory. Therefore he tries to transcend the ego in his art so as to overcome its negative impact. In his novels, he tries to avoid directly and positively advocate any general ideas by embodying in his characters some of the features of "lunatics". The "lunatics" refer to those people who have experienced and perceived the blissful aesthetic moments and deem themselves sensitive artists. But they are unable to restore those evasive moments in art and pursue beauty in a wrong way and thus are obsessed with their personal desires. True artists, according to Nabokov, can jump out of the solipsist prison and create an art that would restore the past in artistic harmony and would make the artist's inner world accessible to readers through the subtle manipulation of words. It is the joint effort of both the artist and the reader that saves the artist from the prison of ego. It is the art of memory and language that contributes to a transcendence of both time and ego and combines the aesthetics and ethics together.In short, a survey of Henri Bergson's philosophy and its influence on Nabokov will explain Nabokov's artistic ideas from some most deeply rooted reasons and expatiate on some of his aesthetics and ethics from his world view and metaphysics. Hence, it helps to get a bird's eye view on the network connecting a great many of Nabokov's artistic ideas so as to provide a kind of systematic understanding of Nabokov. It is hoped that this research will contribute to the further studies on Nabokov and his art.