American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
Nabokov and the Poe-etics of Composition
Author(s): Dale E. Peterson
Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Spring, 1989), pp. 95-107
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
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NABOKOV AND THE POE-ETICS OF
COMPOSITION
Dale E. Peterson, Amherst College
"thespiritof parodyalwaysgoes
along withgenuinepoetry"
-The Gift
Despite some apparentprotestationsto the contrary,the touch of Edgar
Allan Poe lefta ghostlytracein the textsof VladimirNabokov, both early
and late, in poetryas in prose. As a famous (and famouslyopinionated)
author,Nabokov freelyadmittedto a boyhood enthusiasmforPoe, but he
also claimedin his maturity
to have setaside "Edgarpoe" as a fadedfavorite. Yet such summarydismissalsof literarykinfolktypicallyoccurredwhen
interviewers
pushed Nabokov too hard or too crudelyforan admissionof
influence:"I can alwaystellwhena sentenceI composehappensto resemble
in cut and intonationthat of any of the writersI loved or detestedhalfa
centuryago; but I do not believe that any particularwriterhas had any
definiteinfluenceupon me."' Clearly,a consciousresemblancein theact of
compositionis morea tributeto art's knowingpowersof evocationthana
testimonyof psychologicalinfluence.It matteredto Nabokov to be clear
about mattersof apparentsameness;he drewcarefuldistinctionsbetween
conscious and unconsciousresemblances,betweentranslationsand travesties. The art of compositionwas alwayscloserto thewitof parodythanto
the unwitting
repetitionsof so-called literaryinfluences.Whilekeepinghis
distancefromthealleged"influence"
of Poe, Nabokov remainedremarkably
of thepoeticprocess.It was no accident
faithful
to Poe's own understanding
that parodies of Poe kept recurringthroughoutthe careerof the Russian
conjurorwho specializedin producingverbal miragesof lost objects. We
may be certainthatNabokov appreciatedhis own mostfamousbook as a
fondparodyof thePoe-eticsof composition.
At thebeginningof his artfulconfessionand alluringsiren-song,
Humbert
Humbertspeaks a starktruthabout whatstandsat the originof his exemplarystory:"In point of facttheremighthave been no Lolita at all had I
not loved, one summer,a certaininitialgirl-child.In a princedomby the
sea." The firstconsequenceof thisadmissionis thatHumberthimselfperceiveshis Lolita as a spectrallove,thephantasmicfacsimileof a lost Riviera
the conditionof beingcaptifigureof desire.We learn thatnympholepsy,
SEEJ, Vol. 33, No. 1 (1989)
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95
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SlavicandEastEuropean
Journal
vated by nymphets,is a question of focal adjustment;the inner eye of
thwarteddesireleaps at thechanceto imposearchetypalformsof loveliness
on any semblancethat comes along. Visually,then,Humbert'sLolita is
presentedas a foundpoem, an involuntarycomposition,"a littleghostin
naturalcolors."
But Humbert'sLolita is also simultaneously
a made poem, a verbalartifact. As the recuperatedimage of an initial beauty born in a, Poe-etic
atmosphere,"in a princedomby the sea," Lolita's derivationis as much
verbal as optical. She is consciouslyevoked as a reiterationof experience,
as a warmed-overquotation froma hauntingliteraryecho. This Lolita is
made of the stufffromwhich waking daydreamsare made-inaccurate
translationsfrompoetryto life. As is appropriateto a dealer in AngloFrenchpoetrymanualsforlazy students,HumbertHumberthas conceived
a passion for a poor Americantranslationof a Continentaloriginalwho
was herselfconjuredfroma sonorous resemblanceto Poe's "immemorial"
lost love, Annabel Lee. Literacyand desirecombineto createforHumbert
in the"zoo of words."The romanwhatlooks likean endlessimprisonment
tic agony on displayis a sweettrap sprungby an unwittingparodistwho
"relatesto" his own invention.
Fortunately,the author who framesthe narrativehas arrangedfor his
readersto share,yetbe liberatedfromHumbert'scaptivity.Scholars have
long noticedthat Nabokov's Lolita could not have existedwithouta love
for elaborate parody of Edgar Allan Poe.2 AlthoughHumbertmay never
explicitybe aware of it, the narrativehe composes is covertlyinvolvedin
the typesof plots thatPoe's writingso obsessivelyrehearses.The quest to
possessan eidolon(Lolita) and thepursuitof a hallucinateddouble (Quilty)
recapitulatethe major poetic and prosaic formsof Poe's talentfor plots
that mimea mind's gropingsfora hiddenknowledge.But what exactlyis
revealed when the reader can see that Nabokov is selectingPoe textsas
pretextsforvisibleparody?A lesserartistmightwellhave employedparody,
like the proverbialten-footpole, to establisha safe distancefroman alien
presence.But Nabokov knewbetter.As he so memorablyinformedAlfred
Appel,Jr.:"Satireis a lesson,parodyis a game."3
Nabokov consistentlyheld an unconventionalattitudetoward parody,
and complicatedthan a
findingin it somethingrathermore interesting
of
a
content.
Whereas the standard
transparentrejection
highlystylized
Formalist(and Baxtinian) view insiststhat parody is a special formof
"double-voiceddiscourse"in whicha deliberatelystylizedspeechis marked
as the satirizedvoice of an opposite "other,"Nabokov sensed in parody a
playfulcollusionof traditionand criticaltalentthatdid not permita rigid
separationof selffromother.4The factis thatparodyis always a formof
reluctanttributeto the unforgotten
appeal of a once-seductiveparadigm.
Like a game, parodyis a time-consuming
artificethatentertainseven as it
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NabokovandPoe
97
establishesitselfas an autonomousrealmof delusion.Thus, theart ofparillusion.As I
ody admitsto a penchantforseriousplay witha transparent
shall argue,thepracticeof Nabokovianparodyis not alien to Poe's understandingof the poetics of composition.Nabokov's numerousparodies of
Poe are in factliterarytributaries
thatflowfroma similarsourceof inspiration-namely,theperceptionthatgenuinepoetryis inseparablefromthe
spiritof parody.
forPoe is perhapsbestdocumentedby
Nabokov's deep and lastingaffinity
of theirdeliberatechallengeto theplatitudesof a "humanist"
thesimilarity
defenseof poetry.Consider,forexample,thefollowingeloquentcomplaint
of 1948againstone of thesetwopractitioners
of a beautifully
contrivedart:
The formswhichhis livelycuriosity
takesare thosein whicha pre-adolescent
mentality
delights:wonders of nature and of mechanicsand of the supernatural,cryptogramsand
mechanicalchess-players
and wildflightsof speculation.The
cyphers,puzzles and labyrinths,
and lack of
varietyand ardorof his curiositydelightand dazzle; yetin theend theeccentricity
coherenceof his intereststire.. .theeffectis, thatall of his ideas seem entertained
ratherthan
believed..
realizations
aretherealization
ofa dream:significantly,
.His mostvividimaginative
theladiesinhispoemsandtalesarealwaysladieslost.5
The critichereis T. S. Eliot and the criticizedis Edgar Allan Poe, but the
burdenof the indictment
could just as easilyhave been placed, in 1948,at
Nabokov's doorstep.The point of our littledeceptionis preciselyto illustratethe close proximitybetweenPoe and Nabokov as partisansof a militantaestheticism
thatwas takento oppose poetryto profundity.
Well beforeVladimirNabokov had surfacedas the scourgeand public
scold of "human interest"criticismand of the "greatideas" approach to
Poe had scandalizedAmericanpublicopinion(and givenafrisson
literature,
to Baudelaire)by stoutlyexcommunicating
"theheresyof TheDidactic."In
all his writingsabout literarycomposition,Edgar Allan Poe proclaimed
that the proper business of poetrywas "the poem which is a poem and
nothingmore";theauthenticdomainof thepoetryof words,and thesource
of its poetic effect,was "the RhythmicalCreation of Beauty."6Yet a surprisingparadox followedfromPoe's apparentlynarrowdefinitionof true
literarypower.For Poe, as forNabokov, genuineartwas both a supremely
conscious activityand the mysteriousutteranceof an intuitionthat was
neitherlogical nor moral. Poe had discovereda universeof Art (shouting
bothtechnicaland ineffable.
Eureka)thatwas ultimately
In "The Philosophyof Composition"(1846), Poe deliberatelydeglamorized themythof poetic frenzy,arguingthattheeffectof art was to convey
a unityof impressionthatcould onlybe achievedby calculateddesign-"the
workproceeded,stepby step,to its completionwiththeprecisionand rigid
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98
Journal
SlavicandEastEuropean
consequenceof a mathematicalproblem"(Essays, 15). Yet in "The Poetic
Principle"(1850), Poe acknowledgedthattheimpetusto conceiveand utter
a patternedtextualunityof impressionderivedfroma higherIntuition,a
combinationsamong
Platonicshade,of Beauty:"We struggle,
by multiform
the thingsand thoughtsof Time, to attain a portionof that Loveliness
whose veryelements,perhaps,appertainto Eternityalone" (Essays, 77).
Poe-eticcompositionwas, then,a curiouslymelancholyand unfreeexercise
of a conscious capacity to make verbal surfacesand sounds intimatean
intuitedharmony.This splendidsubstituteuniverseof verbalmanipulation
was cause for both celebrationand mourning.Aestheticutterancewas a
pale fire,the afterglowof a divine premonition.Nabokov's own poetic
Shade had surelyread both his Plato and his Poe verycarefullywhen he
playfullyspeculated: "Maybe my sensual love for the consonne/D'appui,
Echo's feychild,is based upon/ A feelingof fantastically
planned,/Richly
rhymedlife"(Pale Fire,48-49).
of
Poe mustbe takenseriouslyas a precursorof theRussiangrandmaster
aestheticplay. Nabokov's formativePetersburgyears coincided with the
heydayof Poe's Russianreputation;KonstantinBal'montwas busilyduplicatingfor Russians Baudelaire's heroicand harrowingimage of an unappreciated"Columbus of new regionsof the humansoul."'7 Meanwhile,the
youngNabokov was one of the few Russian readersof the timewho did
not need to relyon Frenchtranslationsor those Symbolisteffusionsthat
made of Poe a largerpublicidol thanpoeticmodel. Exactlycontraryto the
usual case of Poe's influencein Russia, it was preciselyas a technicianof
rhythmicalbeauty that Poe firstmatteredto the youthfulpoet who was
soon to emergeas the legendarySirin.Poe's presencecan be clearlyfeltat
theoriginsof Nabokov's artisticself-consciousness.
Consider,forinstance,thesoundand senseof thefirstand thirdquatrains
of one of theearliestpreservedof Nabokov's poems:
B xpycTanbHblIH map 3aKnIoqeHbI MbI 6bIH,
H MHMO3Be3A neTenEHMbI C TO6OHi,
cTpeMHTenbHO,6e3MOnBHO MbI CKOJIb3HIH
H36ne3KaB 6IecK 6Ja)KCeHHo-rojny6oHi..
Ho sefi-TO B3OX pa36HJlHamrmap xpycTajbHbIi,
OCTaHOBrJI Hac OFHeHHbIinIOpbIB,
H nouenyiinpepsan Hac 6e3HaqanjbHbIi,
H B nneHHbIiHMHp Hac 6pocHn, pa3Rny'HB.(Cmuxu, 11)
(Enclosed in a crystalglobe werewe,/and past the starsflewyou and I,/ swiftly,
silentlydid
we glide/fromgleamto blissfulblue gleam. ..But someone'sbreathburstour crystalglobe,/
haltedour fieryrush/sunderedour timelesskiss,/and hurledus, separate,to a captiveworld.)
This lyricwas composed in the Crimea in 1918,long beforeNabokov had
gone intopermanentexileor conceivedAda, his epic romanceof thehellish
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NabokovandPoe
99
lovers.Whatresonatesin it is a sympathetic
chord
separationof twin-souled
forthemusicand thestandardlibrettoof Poe-etry.WhatNabokov orchestratesis an elegyof angelicdisplacementthatbears startling
resemblanceto
a descriptionof youngPoe by St. Petersburg's
best-known
commentator
on
theAmericangenius:
In hispractically
childhood
a
poem,Al Aaraaf-hewasn'ttwenty
yet-hehad conceived
Platonictheory
ofpoetry.
TheDeitysaystotheangel-like
self-generated
being,Nisace:"Leave
star(ostav'svojuxrustal'nuju
to otherworlds.. .reyourcrystal
zvezdu),
spreadyoursplendor
vealmysecrets.
8
Virtuallyin boyhood,Nabokov had also composedhis renditionof a heavenlymusicof thespheres-in his case, housed within"a crystalglobe."In a
timebeforetimebegins,in a kind of primordialamnioticsac, two angelic
spiritsfloat in a raptureof cosmic unity.Nabokov's verse observesthe
classic decorumof iambic pentameterwitha strictcaesura at the second
foot,yetit also scuds etheriallyinto fluent,trippingternaryrhythms.The
effectis similarto Poe's characteristic
anapesticlilt whichhe achievesby
line
and
alternating lengths
by makingfreeuse of spondeesand pyrrhics.9
But even moretypicallyPoe-eticis the rude rhythmic
at midinterruption
that
coincides
with
a
dramatized
fall
in
from
Both
"Annabel
poem
grace.
Lee" and in Nabokov's earlylyric,a chillingbreathburststhe bubble of a
loftybliss. As the twin-souledlovers are catapultedinto a world of time
thestrictruleof metersuddenly,rigidlyreplacesa lost grace
and difference,
of rhythm.
Exiled to the measure-obsessedmentalityof earth-boundmortals,it
would seem thatonly in dreamcan "thequiverof the astraldust/and the
wondrousdin" of celestialharmoniesbe recovered.Or so Nabokov's penultimatestanza suggests.But, then,as in Poe's allegedlymorbidpoems,victoryis snatchedfromthe maw of defeatby the power of a poet's verbal
incantation:
HpagyeMcs
pO3HO,
XOTbMbIrpycTHM
TBoe jIHAo, cpegb Bcex npeKpacHblXJIH,
Mory y3HaTb o 3TOi IIblJIH 3Be3gHOi,
OCTaBwLleECR Ha KOHqHKaX peCHH. ..
(Though we grieve and rejoice apart,/ your face, 'midst all the beauteous ones,/ I can detect
by thattraceof starryash,/leftbehindon thetipsof everylash ...)
Here, as in so manyof Poe's elegiac love lyrics,a survivor'simagination
avidly attaches itselfto a spectralidol, an eidolon. The Poe-etic genius
knowshow to be beside itself,in ecstasy,by dwellinginsidea tautological
structureof rhymedsigns that is the verbal figurefor a solipsisticglee.
Poe's unreconciledchampionsof a lost,purelove typicallycreateforthemselves an artificialparadise of perfectly
euphoniousspeech and "lie" by it
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100
SlavicandEastEuropean
Journal
forever.Given a highenoughfidelityto a heard musicof resonantsounds
and reiterated
images,nothing"can everdissevermysoul fromthesoul/ of
thebeautifulANNABEL LEE."
As evidencedby his sonorousand wittylyricof 1918,theyoungNabokov
bliss of truly
could both imitateand emulatetheimperfect,
substitutionary
Poe-etic evocations of ecstasiespast. The lovelornspeaker in Nabokov's
poem is a fallenangel who openlyacknowledgesthe catastropheof differentiationthatarrivesaftercelestialbliss. But at the same time,thepoem's
to attempted
last stanza makesvisiblethededicationof a poetic sensibility
restorationsof "timeless"perceptions.The strainof rebuildingparadise
fromverbaltracesis exposed in thecunninglyimperfect
rhymesof the last
quatrain.The penultimaterhymeis thefirstimpreciseeuphonyin theentire
and thefinalrhymeenactsthe willedsubstiperformance
(rozno/zvezdnoj)
tutionof a shadowypart foran irrecoverablewhole (lic/resnic).It is as if
Nabokov alreadyknew that verbal artistrywas, at best,a synecdochefor
an ineffableentity.
Edgar Allan Poe's earliestdefinitionof poetrymaintainedthatit was a
distinctiveuse of language having for its immediateobject an indefinite
perceptibleimages. . .withindefipleasure;a poem was a work"presenting
nitesensations,to whichend musicis an essential,sincethecomprehension
of sweet sound is our most indefiniteconception" (Essays, 11). More
recently,criticshave noted thatPoe's poetrycombinesan obsessivetheme
with an obligatorymusicalityand deliberateobfuscationof referential
a Poe poem is alwaysthe metmeaning.In Daniel Hoffman'sformulation,
rical account of an archetypalaction,a song-narrative
relatingthe strains
to say whathe has seen in a worldso unlikeours that
of a voice "struggling
he has difficulty
usingthe language of ours to describeit" (59).10 Another
of
the
way putting pointrightlyemphasizesthemelancholiccore thatfuels
Poe-eticcomposition.The eventof verbalcreationis occasioned by a prior
fall fromhappy prescience,"leavingthe poet with(and within)a medium
thatonlytraces,in 'a nebulouslight,'the originaland unrepeatedcreative
moment"(Riddel, 121). This way of positioningthe genesisof Poe's texts
withNabokov's life-longobsessivereweavingof lost
createsan intersection
texturesof experience.It is, in otherwords,no random coincidencethat
both Poe and Nabokov dramatizeverbal creationas an act of refiguring
once enchantingfigures.In Poe's poems, in Humbert's memoir,and in
Nabokov's sophisticatedparodiestheverbalsignis an imagethatre-marks
theabsence of an ideal, unrepeatableform.Thus thereis a borrowedshade
of PlatonicIdealismthatsheltersPoe's lyricsand Nabokov's lyricistsfrom
scornof simplesatire.
thewithering
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NabokovandPoe
101
2
Wellbeforeand wellaftertheparodicdouble exposureof Poe and Humbert
in Lolita, Nabokov's prose repeatedlyrehearsedthe thematicsand the
paradigmaticplotsof Poe's tales.In "The Returnof Chorb"(1925) Nabokov
was wittilyretracingone of Poe's most-troddencompositionalpaths. In
relatingthetragicomedyof a widower'sprojectof repossessinghis virginal
bridethrougha reversereconstruction
of theperfectimagehe had wed but
one of the trademarkGothic
not taken to bed, Nabokov was reiterating
In
of
of
Allan
Poe.
a
series
world-famous
stories("Morella,"
plots Edgar
Poe
had
made
his
own
and
"Berenice,"
especially"Ligeia")
special variant
on the themeof metempsychosis;
a dementedartist-lover
attemptsto transcendloss throughartful(thoughoftenunwitting)
of theobsesrestitutions
remembered
and
of
an
idealized
features
sively
lady love. This
furnishings
motifalso extendsfarand wide in the prose fictionof VladimirNabokov.
It is, in fact,thematicallyat the centerof his penultimatenovel-a work
and elaborateupon a rareand ignoredgenre
whichalso managesto retrieve
that Poe had pioneered:the posthumousdialogue among shades. Justas
Nabokov's readersare belatedlytrying
to come to termswiththeundeniable
"spectraldimension"presentin whatread like genuineghoststories,so too
Poe scholarshave onlyreluctantly
addressedhisbaffling
angeliccolloquies."
Attentivereadersof Poe and Nabokov eventuallyhave to ask themselves
about the
what to make of certainopaque fictionsthat are transparently
Thereis, forinstance,an eerieresemblancebetweenthebasic narafterlife.
rativeframesof Poe's best-known
posthumousdialogue,"The Conversation
of Eiros and Charmion"(1839) and TransparentThings.2 In Poe's short
existencegreetsa newcomerat thethreshcolloquy,a veteranof post-mortal
old of a painlessand omniscientrealmcalled Aidenn.His wordsof greeting
easilycarrya double meaningto merelymortalreaders:"Dreams are with
us no more.. .I rejoice to see you looking life-likeand rational...I will
myselfinductyou into the fulljoys and wondersof yournovel existence"
(Tales, 358). Surelythereis to be hearda hintat metafictional
allegory.The
situationis remarkablyclose to Mr. R's benevolentcoachingof the newlyarrivedHugh Person,a scene whichcan be seen as presenting
therepresentativeof thetext(our mister)calmingthefearsof a character(you,person)
who has recentlybeen transferred
to the dimensionof print(Maddox,
134-36).
But Poe's fable,like Nabokov's shortnovel,refusesto be limitedto one
narrowallegoricaldimension.It turnsout thatCharmion,our expertin the
craves words fromEiros depictingthe sensationand feel of the
afterlife,
now-exterminated
world. Thus we have a post-Apocalypsedialogue in
which,oddly enough,the perfectfutureseeks the supplementof the past
imperfect.
Althoughall tiesto thetranscendedearthare severed,theworld's
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102
SlavicandEastEuropean
Journal
languageis stillinvokedto recollectthefamiliarfeelof a perishedexistence.
Althougha transferinto a new realityhas in fact occurred,the linguistic
mediumservesas a vehicleof illusorytransportback to an obliteratedand
unrecoverableworld.Expressedthisway,Poe's cosmologicalfantasyis not
so far removedfromthe fantasticperceptionsof Nabokov's lyricistsand
sleep-walkerswho superimposeone worldon another.Tricksof language
do make possible a dual existencein whichone can fancybeingelsewhere
fromwhereone is. As Mr. R. forewarnsus, novices of consciousnessare
everin dangerof sinkingthroughratherthanswimmingin therapidsurface
of time'scurrent.Surelyone way of being"dead to the world"is by being
to theseductiveatmosphereof a worldcomposedof words.
inattentive
Poe's afterlifeaccount of the world's end emphasizes the idiocy of
rationalityin not takingseriouslythe threatto the real earth of contact
with a gaseous comet: "We had long regardedthe wanderersas vapory
creationsof inconceivabletenuity,and as altogetherincapable of doing
injuryto our substantialplanet,even in the eventof contact"(Tales, 360).
If thissoundslike theconfidentblindnessof commonsensemakinglightof
the poetic imagination'stransformative
powers,so be it. The plot of Poe's
angelic dialogue makes much of human obtusenessto the inflammatory
thatis allowed a close approachto earth.
impactof a tenuousenvironment
Havingno materialdensityto speak of,thecometis assumedto be harmless
and immaterial.But in the end of thiscosmic cautionarytale, the strange
entityliterallyoverheatsand consumestheatmospherethatsustainsmortal
life:
ofemotion.
us witha hideousnovelty
We sawitnotas an astronomical
It oppressed
phein theheavens-butas an incubusuponourhearts,
nomenon
and a shadowon ourbrain...
inthecometwhichhadpreviously
Thattenuity
us withhope,wasnowthesourceof
inspired
ofdespair.In itsimpalpable
thebitterness
we clearlyperceived
thecongaseouscharacter
ofFate.(Tales,362)
summation
Reason's contemptforthe imaginationand foraereal (a-real) bodies must
share the blame for the sudden evaporationof what was taken to be the
"real" world. Poe's "Conversationof Eiros and Charmion"is the sort of
fancifulapocalyptic"physicsfiction"that exerteda permanentcharmon
Nabokov. In Poe can be foundone sourceof thatodd genrethatNabokov
servedup late in his career-the otherworldly,
posthumousnarrativethat
figuresas an ironicmetapoeticfable about actual transportinto a surreal
dimensionof existence.
Whateverelse it is, TransparentThingsis a seriesof proofsillustrating
how human perceptionwishes to "see through"the verbal and physical
signs given in each slipperypresentmoment.The mind bringsa ghostly
companyof past images and projectedpatternsto the surfacesit haunts.
Nabokov's firstchaptermakes of a parentheticalaside an object lesson in
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NabokovandPoe
103
how authors' and readers' minds inescapablysupplementthe given text
with spectresof thought:"Man-made objects, or natural ones, inertin
themselvesbut much used by careless life (you are thinking,and quite
rightlyso, of a hillsidestoneover whicha multitudeof small animalshave
to
scurriedin the course of incalculableseasons) are particularlydifficult
keep in surfacefocus" (10). This parentheticalaside functionsas an early
paradigm among many,as one collateralproof,makingtransparentthe
mind's own geometryof coincidingfigures.Nabokov's text exposes the
irresistible
humancomedyof seeingdouble,theincurablementaladdiction
of all plot-making
characters,readers,and narrators."
All insightis hindsight,and significanceis an importedstringof experiencethat is placed on a presentperceptionor an imaginedfuture.Ultimately,the readerand the narratorof Nabokov's ex post factoresumeof
Hugh Person's transpiredlife are akin to the book's bumbling,oddly
patheticantihero.Ratherlike a somnambulistwho killstherealityhe loves
by clasping too tightlya dream replica of it, writersand readerstend to
squeeze shiftingsignifiersinto dead lettersand resolvedpatterns.That is
the dangerof a passion fortotal significance-inits apocalypticyearning
willstheeliminationof the
fora hoped-forrevelationthemindunwittingly
world.
fictions
that
Fortunately,
pretendto look back upon a
presented
like Poe and
finishedworldare alwaysan illusion,and certainrarewriters,
feel
to
make
that
illusion
translucent
Nabokov,
by makingthe
impelled
like Poe's
Narratives
behold.
of
stable
a
to
verycomposition
meaning thing
be
considered
constitute
what
"Conversation"and Transparent
might
Things
parodiesof allegory.
Thingshas the wit to containwithinits pages an allusion to
Transparent
an unpublished(and hence unreadable) masterpiecethat is seductively
granteda "titlethatshone throughthebook like a watermark"(109). That
workis Mr. R.s defiantlynamed Tralatitions.It is, apparently,a scandaltitle,a
ously life-likenarrativethat has been saddled withan off-putting
titlethat representsan opaque synonymfor "metaphors."Nabokov thus
cleverlydraws attentionto a work of literaryrealismthat labels itselfas
figurative.The fussilyprecisetitleis clearlymeantto lead to a dictionary,
whereone discoversthat"tralatitious"denotesany meaning"characterized
and verbalreiterations.
by transference,"
includingmetaphoricsubstitutions
In short,Mr. R.'s honest fictionopenly announced itselfas a book of
The verbalmediummustdeal in artificiallikenesses,in approxitransfers.
mationsthat striveto align sound and sense, signifierand signified.The
or re-producehumanexperienceis a
notionthatone can literallyre-present
figmentof the imaginationfosteredequally well by cunningrealistsand
infatuatedromantics.14
Whatfinallyseparatesa Mr. R. fromtheordinaryPersonwho proofreads
novels forliteralaccuracyand revisitsold hauntsforthe thrillof revived
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104
Journal
SlavicandEastEuropean
sensationsis a healthysense of parody. Mr. R. seems fullyaware thatthe
mind'sperceptionsof a restoredfullnessof beingcan onlyoccurby means
of a mysteriousmaneuverthat lets us pass froma presentto a vicarious
moment,froma worldlyto an unworldlyplane of existence."Easy, you
know,does it,son."What we commonlyacceptas renewedcontactwiththe
most significantexperiencesof our lives is nevermore than a ghost play
with verbal shades and visual shadows. The poetrywe live is a spirited
parodyof an obscureprimarytext.
3
In Nabokov's writings,
as in Poe's poems and prose fantasies,lyricalcommemorationof whathas been lost cannotbe farremovedfromthespiritof
parody. Both authorseloquentlyand obsessivelyconnectedthe successful
evocation of memorableimageswiththe sensationof absence."1If parody
is understoodas a transparentmistranslationof an originaltextthat is
distortedbut not beyondrecognition,thenit is a formof utterancethatis
akin to poetryas understoodby Edgar Allan Poe. A Poe poem draws
attentionto itsown substitutionary
inadequacy,beingin itsobvious artificreminder
and
a
of theabsentideal it cannotreplace.
of
sound
pale
image
ing
The Poe-eticsof compositionis thusradicallyPlatonic,since Poe's melancholysingersunderstand,like Socratesin the Cratylusdialogue,thatmimesis always marks a loss, a gap throughwhich the perfectformmay be
apprehended:"Namesrightly
imperfectly
givenare thelikenessesand images
of the thingswhichtheyname."'6Words knowinglyemployedare at their
of an intuitedForm thathas
beautifulbestbut replicasand foreshadowings
been erodedin thestreamof mortaltime.
Parodiesof Poe and shades of Plato recurwithinNabokov's manyverbal
fabricationsof unforgotten
yetinaccessiblemomentsof time.It is not surprisingthatNabokov shouldhave paid regularnervoustributeto his fellow
poets of the mind's exile in a lapsed world. Althoughshyof Greek metaphysicsand Americanspiritualism,the Russian aesthetefullyappreciated
the need forsome recourseto alleviatethe pain of earlydispossessionof a
worldof rememberedharmonyand grace. Why,then,the evidentimpulse
to parody or parrywith his strongpredecessors?Perhaps Nabokov had
founda way to make peace withand findhappinessin thisfallenworldof
thematicdesigns.UnlikePlato or Poe, Nabokov
approximateand imperfect
could imaginea gratifying
survivalwithinexile'schillykingdom.
A certaintypeof knowingartistrycould provideconsolationand even
some bliss throughconsciousparodiesand admittedsimulationsof vanished
momentsof significance.
Thus JohnShade, thepoet of art's combinational
"I
could
proclaim: toreapart thefantasiesof Poe,/ And dealt with
delights,
childhoodmemoriesof strange/Nacreousgleamsbeyondtheadults' range"
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NabokovandPoe
105
(Pale Fire,39-40). The trickwas to knowhow to occupythesavingillusion
of a text'stimelesspresentwithoutlosingsightof thepressureof timeand
circumstance.Art was the diversionaryplay of creativememory;it made
possible the joy of a figurativerestorationof lost experiencewithinthe
tyrannyof the cruel present.Nabokov's survivalartist,himselfa Shade,
was thusa masterparodistwho could lead a charmeddouble lifeso long as
his intellectwas aware of how textstranslatetheirreversible
actualityof the
worldintoa newdimensionof reflected
reality.
Nabokov's consciousparodies of Poe werethemselvesschooled in Poe's
philosophyof composition.Both Poe and Nabokov werewellaware of that
trickof humanconsciousnessthatenablestheconjurorof wordsand images
to straddletwo worldsat once and, as it were,to getaway withtwo-timing
life.And theyboth composed textsthatdeliberatelyexposed the transference and thetransport,
thatcould be achieved
thegenuineotherworldliness,
and
of
the
vicariousvehicleof
an
by
inspired
manipulation
well-regulated
Genuine
poetry,oddlyenough,alwaysgoes along withthespirit
language.
of parody-it is composed as a knowinglyinaccuratetranslationof an
unrecoveredsourceof inspiration.
unforgotten,
NOTES
1 The citationis fromthe 1964 interviewwithJane Howard of Life magazine in Strong
to Poe occurin interviews
withTofflerand Appel (42-43, 64).
Opinions(46); references
2 Thorough trackingsof Lolita's numerousallusions to Poe may be pursued in Proffer
(34-45) and in Appel's annotatededition(330-33). A recent,excellentdiscussionof the
Poe dimensionthatinformsthenarrativeappearsin Maddox (72-76).
3 StrongOpinions(75-76) containsthisfamousremarkand an ensuingdiscussionthatfeaturesNabokov's rejectionofparodyas so simplea matteras "grotesqueimitation."Nabokov praises Joyceanparody at its best for the "suddenjunctionof its cliches withthe
fireworks
and tenderskyof realpoetry."
4 The classicstatements
of theFormalistdistinction
between"stylization"
and "parody"are
located in Tynjanov's famous essay of 1921 (101-17) and in Baxtin'sfamous chapter,
"Discoursein Dostoevsky"(193-96). For recentappreciationsof Nabokov's quitedifferent
of parody,see White'sessay and Frosch'sdiscussionofLolita.
understanding
5 These causticremarksoccurin Eliot (35).
6 The particularphrasingsare from"The PoeticPrinciple"(1850) in Poe (Essays,75-76); all
are givenin
further
citationsare fromtheLibraryof Americaeditionand page references
parentheses.
7 Grossmanoffersthedefinitive
studyof thesubtlepeculiaritiesof the Russianreceptionof
"Edgarpoe,"that legendaryFranco-Americancult figure.With the reissue,in 1884, of
Baudelaire's translations,HistoiresExtraordinaires,
all of Europe had the FrenchmetaAfter1895 the Russian climatewas receptiveto the new
physicalPoe at its fingertips.
wave of post-Realistaestheticism.The Nabokov familylibrarycatalogue containedthe
earliestvolume of Russian translationsfromthe English,Ballady i Fantazii (M., 1895),
withBal'mont'sintroduction
hailingPoe as the"firstSymbolist."
8 See Ani~kov(213-71), a reprintof his influentialarticleof 1909, "Baudelaireand Edgar
Poe." The citedpassage occurs on page 249. On the importanceof Aniikov among educated Petersburg
readers,see Grossman(163).
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106
Slavic andEast EuropeanJournal
9 Listen,for example,to the rhythmic
strict
pauses and scuds and then the interruptive
meterin thesobbinglyric,"To One in Paradise":
Thou wastthatall to me,love,
For whichmysoul did pineA greenisle in thesea, love,
A fountainand a shrine...
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Ah, dreamtoo brightto last!
Ah, starryHope! thatdidstarise
But to be overcast!
(Poetryand Tales)
Firstpublishedin 1972,Hoffman'singeniouspursuitof the essentialPoe also offersone
of the first,documentedproofs that Nabokov was "a confirmed,nay, an obsessional
reader"of Poe, showinghow Nabokov's late book of exile,Ada, makes referenceto the
exilefromchildhood"(30-31).
ambitiousTamerlaneby "a nineteen-year-old
The earliest(and most literal-minded)
pursderof the ghostsand supernaturaleffectsin
was Tate's philosophiNabokov's plotsis Rowe. The comparablemomentin Poe criticism
cosmocallysophisticatedessay on the "angelicimagination"at workin theotherworldly
logicalfantasies.
Educated European readerswerewellfamiliarwithPoe's weirdtale throughBaudelaire's
translationof it in theoftenre-issuedNouvellesHistoiresExtraordinaires.
Rosenblumargues thatnarrativeitselfis laid bare as "a networkof noted and unnoted
coincidences"thatmaybe builtup at theperilof thereader-architect.
See especiallyThiher(1984) fora shrewddiscussionof thedreamof "fullsynonymy"
that
motivatesliteraryrealismand of Nabokov's ironicportrayalof "theway we expectsense
to be generatedby recurrence,
(97-99).
doublings,and synonymies"
Poe's notoriousassertion,in "The Philosophyof Composition,"that"thedeath of a beautifulwomanis, unquestionably,themostpoeticaltopicin theworld"(Essays, 19) is based
on a priorassociation of poetrywithevoked absence: "Beautyof whateverkind,in its
supremedevelopment,invariablyexcitesthesensitivesoul to tears.Melancholyis thusthe
mostlegitimate
of all thepoeticaltones"(Essays, 17). Comparethisto Nabokov's remarkin hisLectureson Literature:"Beautypluspity-that is the
ably congruentpronouncement
closestwe can get to a definitionof art. Wherethereis beautythereis pityforthesimple
reasonthatbeautymustdie" (251).
See the elegant explicationof the Platonic epistemologythat informs"Poe-eticity"in
Humphries(18-27).
WORKS CITED
I: na zapade, 213-71. SPb.:
Anitkov,Evgenij."Bodleri Edgar Po." In Predtecii Sovremenniki
Osvoboldenie,1911.
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Appel,Jr.,Alfred.TheAnnotated
Bakhtin,Mikhail [Mixail Baxtin]. Problemsof Dostoevsky'sPoetics. Ed. and trans. Caryl
Emerson.Minneapolis:Univ. of MinnesotaPress,1984.
Eliot, T. S. "From Poe to Valery."In his To Criticizethe Critic,27-42. London: Faber and
Faber, 1965.
in Lolita."In Nabokov'sFifthArc:Nabokovand
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Grossman,Joan Delaney. EdgarAllanPoe inRussia:A Studyin LegendandLiteraryInfluence.
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