Research On Nabokov’s Autobiography

Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is one of the most original writers of the twentiethcentury. His life was like a bright butterfly, which always forced into exile in the wrongdimension. But like butterfly’s brilliant needs to go through many times transmutation,no matter how the situation was, he always became what he wanted to be. There is noone autobiographical writer merges personal life story and non-personal artistic skills soperfect like him. His autobiography Speak, Memory was selected as the works whichcarry the tripod of20th century’s biography by The New Republic. The purpose of hisautobiography writing is to outline the artistic dimension on the cornerstone of the life,using artistic arrangement to express the deepest conviction and all the feelings of theheart. This makes "Speak, Memory" enhance the value of an aesthetic on the basis ofdocumentary.On the basis of reading the text in details, it tries to make clearer of “Time” and “theOther World” which are always the focus of research, with the reference to VladimirNabokov.Strong Opinions(an interview to Nabokov, translated by Pan Xiaosong). Itwill use some philosophy, aesthetics and psychology theories to analyze Nabokov’sthoughts. Not the record of his life but the description about his writing style is the bestpart of a writer’s autobiography. Here it will describe the outline of the artisticdimension of that self-biography Speak, Memory, in order to show his unique style. Thebody part is divided into three chapters.In the first chapter, there is a discussion about autobiographical “Time” philosophy.The sense of time is closely related to the awakening of self-consciousness as a form of"inner experience". According to his own viewpoint of reality which is subjective,Nabokov thinks that “Time” is a circular prison. In fact, he means that concerning aboutthe time is talking about human’ existence because only existing in the “Time”, can itbe possible. Although persons’ consciousness is able to go beyond present objectiveconditions, but persons can’t run out of the “Time” prison. By questioning the meaningof self-existence, Nabokov finds out that forgetting the manacles of “Time” results on akind of detachment with hunting for the timeless fascination. In the second chapter, there is a discussion about autobiographical “the OtherWorld” philosophy.“The Other World” is a secret in Nabokov’s soul as hismetaphysical concepts, which is influenced by the awareness of death, his mother’sdevout religious attitude and the impact of the Russian Symbolist Poetry. The theory ischaracterized by its surreal points and unconsciousness which can not be sketched withclear words, so Nabokov’s autobiographical writing is linked up with the meditationfrom the other world to narrate everything secretly, so that he will not be confused withthe prison of life, and reach the other world.In the third chapter, there is the discussion about the dimension of the art inautobiography. Nabokov’s autobiography is a merger of the individual life andnon-personal artistic means. He fights for a legitimate status of artistic description aboutthe life. His love is shown by multi-themes. He keeps the aesthetic distance with thepopular historical works by writing characteristic history. The main mode of writing isused to get rid of the crisis in which literary subjectivity might lose. He also wants toadjust the positions between readers and authors to do artistic self-writing on basis ofthe contract about truth narration.Above all, it is going to discuss on or reorganize the “Time” and “the Other World”theory from the philosophical and psychological perspective. It is also to explore thecharacters and significance of the knots between “the Other World” theory andautobiographical writing, besides the study on his artistic style of autobiography fromseveral aspects, for an example, themes, historical ideas, subjectivity, and so on.