Cultural Identity In Pale Fire

Russian-born American writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977）is one of the mostexcellent writers in the20thcentury. By virtue of "Lolita", he conquered the worldliterature. And the "Pale Fire" was referred to as "the20th Century’s one of the greatestworks of art”. His works are characterized by unique style and multitudinousness. Hiscross-cultural writing of multiculture identity determined the diversified characteristicof his works.In this thesis, the problem of cultural identity is as to the entry point of theNabokov ’s novel "Pale Fire". The thesis studies all kinds of anxiety and contradictionsin the novel characters’ identity construction, the search for identity and identity crisis,and explores Kinbote’s psychological changes and spiritual core at all stages of thepursuit of life.The main body of the thesis includes four aspects, which will be started by severalconnotations during the processes of the construction of individual identity, including“appeal and anxiety”、“exile and pursuit”、“counterargument and counteraction”、“belonging and significance”. The main content is as follows:Chapter One discusses the anxiety and fear of the main character during theprocesses of the appeal of his personal identity. As an exile, Kinbote, the hero of thisnovel, living in the context of mainstream American culture, who represents aheterogeneous culture, was always unable to have his own right of speech. In theconfusion of this kind of identity, his belonging of cultural identity is filled with anxietyand fear.Chapter Two reveals the deep influences of Nabokov’s identity of dual cultures onhis works and the spiritual dilemma of the character during the pursuit of his identity.Nabokov likes an exiled "Butterfly" flying along the border of Russianculture and American culture, and his works present the mental confusion in the identityconstruction of a diasporic writer. The exiled life of Kinbote is recognized as a vagrantof mind. The failure of his pursuit of ego ideal leaded to the alienation and confusion ofthe characteristic of his identity. Chapter Three explores that in the reflection of the meta-narration and thefragmented narrative model, the characteristic of identity was stripped as unreliable, andeven the state of dislocation."Pale Fire" was famous for its unique style, and the waythat we put the identity in narrative principle is the innovation of this novel.The last chapter contributes the belonging and the significance of identity into thespiritual support of the art of Nabokov’s——the another world, to explore the aestheticdimension of the freedom of self-consciousness inherent in this novel. When weidentify Kinbote’s identity with a schema dual and contradictious, we also hope that nomatter how expanded this contradiction and this anxiety, the significance of identity willbe a kind of pursuit of the freedom of mind, and it will defend the real world ofhim-self.In brief, on the basis of critical theories，such as the theory of Postcolonialism、Postmodernism and Narratology."Pale Fire"——the masterpiece of Vladimir Nabokov,the writer of this thesis tries to manifest the unique charm of the text inherent in thenovel, and combining with the specific significance of the construction of identity of thecharacter to explore the spiritual character in the art of Nabokov’s.