On The Concept Of Time In Nabokov’s Art World

The concept of time in Nabokov’s art world has drawn a wide attention for quite a long time. However, there are lots of controversies. For example, about the "time prison", scholars still argue on if human beings could break through its bondage, and how can that happen. Does Nabokov’s concept of time derive from Bergson’s philosophy of life or connect with Heidegger’s existential philosophy? At the moment, the academia has neither view Nabokov’s concept of time systematically and deeply, nor form the corresponding theory.Based on above researches, I comb the representations about time and space in the writer’s works, and preliminarily form a theory on Nabokov’s concept of time. He believes that everyone lives in a time which is successive, flowing and spatialized. He calls this kind of existence "time prison", and the time in "time prison" is "application time", which is corrupted by space, without conscious ness’s participation. But Nabokov doesn’t think we can only stay in the prison hopelessly, he aspires to reach the free land of "pure time"."Pure time" is the time stopped by consciousness, and it is still, non-spatialized. All the past that doom to perish can be preserved in "pure time". Nabokov believes the key to get into "pure time" from "application time" lies in human consciousness. By means of "leaving soul", one can examine the world. By "cosmic synchronization", one connects the world, and with art reorganization, one changes the world. Then, the past, present and future would be connected closely in the light of consciousness, and the prisoner in "application time" finally transcends his own prison. In short, Nabokov thinks the light of human consciousness could surpass the limitation of "application time", and achieve the land of "pure time"On this basis, in order to grasp the trait of Nabokov’s concept of time, through a longitudinal study, the rest of chapter one compares Nabokov’s concept of time with other thinkers’ideas in history, and gives a certain responses to the discussion on the relationship among Nabokov’s concept of time, Bergson’s philosophy and Heidegger’s thought.In view of the effect of consciousness connects with time closely, in chapter two, I analyze different effects of consciousness in Nabokov’s works from "the phenomenon of leaving soul","cosmic synchronization", and "art reorganization"; search for how the protagonists open a narrow leak of the "time prison" in their own ways, and how does the writer make his dream come true in the art world.Finally, combined with the writers’ life story, I try to elaborate Nabokov’s understanding about existence, and reflect on his concept of time. In my opinion, although consciousness is not the fundamental way to solve the problem, Nabokov does give the readers a great shock:as an artist, he makes every effort to reflect on the limitation of existence, and transcend it in his own way.