in and taking it apart, recombining its elements in the very process of storing them up so as to produce at some unspecified date an organic miracle, a fusion of image and music, a line of verse».
You might say that the structure of Pale Fire is like a fuge; all three characters are contrapuntally singing the same song. The theme of the song is «Individuation». All three are striving realize themselves. Gradus, as Shadow is on a mission to come to consciousness via revolution. Kinbote is on a mission to BE someone, to be recognized, to tell his story. John Shade is on a mission to understand the «Beyond», the metaphysical facts of Life.
The triple motif is suggested in title, Pale Fire, is taken from these lines in Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens:
The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun
The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; the earth’s a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stol’n
From gen’ral excrement; each thing’s a thief.[149]
Note that Sun, Moon, sea and earth have a circular relationship. They are, then, in a sense, united. A recurring theme of this relationship will be found throughout the text.
Although there are four «characters» here, they can be reduced to three, as both the sea and the land are part of the «earth». Sun/Moon/Earth: metaphorically and psychologically, and alchemically, we could say it is a united triad of «spirit/soul/body», or “ Higher Consciousness/Ego/Unconsciousness» and, as we shall see, «Shade/Kinebote/Gradus».
This «stolen» quality we see especially in the reflection of the Sun on the Moon, and in the many references to light, reflections, mirrors, nacre, luminescence, opalescence, etc. There are many levels of this theme of theft, or borrowing, including Nabokov’s many «cryptomnesic» parodies of the works of others. Jung wrote the following about the symbols of Sun and Moon:
«There are mythological theories that explain everything as coming from the sun and lunar theories that do the same for the moon. This is due to the simple fact that there are countless myths about the moon, among them a whole host in which the moon is the wife of the sun…
The moon is the changing experience of the night, and thus coincides with the primitive’s sexual experience of woman, who for him is also the experience of the night. But the moon can equally well be the injured brother of the sun, for at night affect-laden and evil thoughts of power and revenge may disturb sleep. The moon, too, is a disturber of sleep, and is also the abode of departed souls, for at night the dead return in dreams and the phantoms of the past terrify the sleepless. Thus the moon also signifies madness («lunacy»)»[150].
Note how much the above quote is reflected in Pale Fire: from the allusions of the relationship of Sun and Moon in the title, to the «anima» (experience of woman) associations of the feminine Moon, to the feminine moon sometimes appearing as a brother (i.e. Kinebote, and possibly the reason he is portrayed as gay), the disturbed sleep (Shade, Kinbote, Gradus and Nabokov), the departed souls and phantoms (Hazel), to lunacy (Kinebote); practically the whole story is contained here!
The first two lines of Shade’s poem also allude to the three main characters. «I» (Ego) was the shadow (lower self) of the waxwing (higher conscious seeking transcendence).
Thus, we can see from the deepest structure of the novel, to the title, to the foreword and to the first lines of the poem symbiotic relationship of Gradus/Kinbote/Shade, the tri-partite man.
© Mary Ross 2017
Послесловие
Две интересные статьи Мэри Росс досконально раскрывают таинства и загадки «Бледного пламени» Набокова. Первая статья связана с криптомнезией, с «бессознательной памятью», являющейся одной из содержательных тем в творчестве Набокова. Вторая рассматривает человека, отпустившего «эго», то есть без инстинкта самосохранения. Обе статьи берут в качестве априори утверждения Карла Юнга относительно 50 стихов «Бледного пламени», где присутствует главная тема – «воровство из источника», как луна у солнца. Причем автор подчеркивает, что это был своего рода ответ Набокова на некую критику литературного воровства и плагиата.
Мэри Росс живет в Сан-Франциско, штат Калифорния. Выпускница Калифорнийского университета в области классических исследований, она является профессиональным художником и активным читателем.
Чжан Бин[151]
В. Набоков и формальная школа
Известный писатель Владимир Владимирович Набоков (1899—1977) всю жизнь был кровно связан с духовной культурой русского Серебряного века.
Заслуживает особого исследования вопрос о том, какие отношения были между этим американским писателем, русским по рождению, с формальной школой, которая главенствовала в литературоведении в 20-х годах прошлого века. Автор настоящей статьи, ориентируясь на соответствующие материалы, определяет эти отношения таким образом: во-первых, во взглядах на эстетику и литературу В. Набоков заимствовал некоторые идеи последних (например, доктрина остранения), и сам руководствовался этими идеями в своём творчестве.
Во-вторых, по всей вероятности, В. Набоков мог лично общаться с Виктором Шкловским, который являлся представителем Общества по изучению стихотворного языка (ОПОЯЗ), и вероятно, что во многих отношениях они бы сошлись во взглядах на искусство. В-третьх, в разборе «Шинели» Н. Гоголя ОПОЯЗовцами проглядывает глубокое соответствие методологии В. Набокова, особенно близки его взгляды к идеям ОПОЯЗовца Бориса Эйхенбаума.
Поэтому можно сделать вывод о том, что главный стержень взгляда В. Набокова на литературу и искусство является «формальным» и «эстетским», или можно сказать, сверхискусственным.
Ключевые слова: Набоков, Русская формальная школа, остранение, Шкловский, Эйхенбаум
V. Nabokov and the formalism
The whole life of the famous modernist poet-novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899—1977) is vitally linked with the spiritual culture of silver century in Russia, where he was born and grew up to 19 years. The question of what the relationship is between the American writer with Russian blood and the formalist, which takes priority in the study of literature in the 20 years of the last century, deserves special study. The author of this article, focusing on the relevant materials, defines the relationship as follows: Firstly, from the view of aesthetics and literature V. Nabokov borrowed some ideas of formalism. Secondly, it is possibly that Nabokov maybe personally talked with Viktor Sklovskim, who is the representative of the study of poetic language (OPOAZ), and even more, they may agree with each other in many ways. Thirdly, in Nabokov’s academic articles of overcoat of Gogol reflected a profound methodological consistency with Eichenbaum. From above we will arrive at the conclusion that the main view of Nabokov on the literature is «formalism» or «esthetic».
Key Words: V. Nabokov, formalism, defamiliarization, Sklovsky, Eichenbaum
В. В. Набоков – писатель с уникальной особенной биографией, он американский
