Intoxication And Soberness: A Study Of Nabokov's Novels

As one of the most important writers in the 20^th century, Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) made a substantial contribution to Russian literature and English literature. Although researches on Nabokov have been quite mature and fruitful, it is hardly seen to explore such a feature of intoxication and soberness, which is an intrinsic conjunction among the three: Nabokov's unique survival way, the life-like appearance of the novels' protagonists and the artistic pursuit of the novels. In my view, it is helpful to deepen our understanding to Nabokov and his creation by finding out the specific performance of the feature and the intrinsic relationship among them.Firstly, from the point of Nabokov's own experience, the author, on one hand, analyzes his awareness of genius which makes him intoxicate in his individual world; on the other, he realizes soberly that the exiles are out of tune with the society and experience the pain of isolation or misunderstanding. However, he doesn't discard the former because of the latter. It can be said that he is an intoxicated man with sober consciousness. He thinks that spiral cycle goes out of the vicious circle.Secondly, there are certain links between Nabokov and protagonists in his novels. These protagonists are all between intoxication and soberness, which can be seen from two aspects: the time prison can be broken shortly but can not be broken permanently and ecstasy in crazy thoughts and despair in soberness. Nabokov keeps a certain distance with the protagonists. He not only makes a mockery of the protagonists' comic aspect, but also appreciates their stubborn spirit. His attitude towards these characters implies his reflection to himself.Thirdly, from Nabokov's aesthetic pursuit, on one hand, he creates an atmosphere of art reality which makes the reader immerse in the novel by the background of the novel, the writer's reflection in the novel and the focalization on the hero; on the other, he reveals the fictional nature of the novel which makes reader aware of the fiction of the novel by exposing directly the fictional voice and shaping unreliable narrator. So his novel has an aesthetic characteristic both imaginary and real. In this paper, the author takes Nabokov and his representative novels as the study objects and attempts to demonstrate the effectiveness of personalized reading by using the theories of tragedy and comedy as well as narratology.