Russia "and" Non-russian ",

Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is one of the greatest bilingual writers of the 20th century. Even when he was in exile in Western Europe, overseas Russian critics had begun to query the "Russian nature" of his works because of their unique styles. In 1940, after he immigrated to the United States and began to write in English, the view that he was a Non-Russian writer was dominant among critics. When Nabokov was still alive, he readily admitted that he was an American writer, and firmly denied that other writers, including the Russian writers had any influence on him and had repeatedly stressed that there was no connections between him and the writers of other cultural traditions.In 1989, the Russian Diaspora Literature "returned" to Russia and the Prohibition of the publication was lifted. Under these circumstances, Nabokov was "readily accepted" as the Russian writer by the official literary circles of the Soviet Union. Then, a controversy of whether Nabokov is a Russian writer began to rise. In this debate, continued the dispute of "the non-Russian nature" of Nabokov's works which began in the 1920s and 1930s among the radical overseas Russian critics.As a Russian-American writer who spent his youth in Russia, have Nabokov's works really, as some overseas commentators have said, betrayed the Russian literary tradition? Is he the inheritor of the Russian literary tradition or the challenger? The research on this issue in other countries, especially in the United States and Russia, has achieved fruitful results; while in China, our academic circle seemed to be more interested in his English works, and more willing to regard him as an American writer. The research of Nabokov's Russian works needs to be dealt with in-depth.This dissertation is to dwell on Nabokov's early Russian works. According to Harold Bloom's theory of "The Anxiety of Influence", the author of this dissertation attempts to answer the questions and make a conclusion:Nabokov is an inheritor, but also a loyal guardian of the Russian literary tradition. He inherited the outstanding literary tradition which Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky and others created and the tradition of the Silver Age, but he disagrees with the aesthetic theory of realism that Chernyshevsky created. Under the influence of Russian literature, Nabokov has developed unique aesthetic concepts:emphasis on details, pursuit of literary imagination, symbolism and aesthetic ecstasy.This dissertation consists of six chapters. The first chapter mainly studies why Russian overseas critics hold the opinion that Nabokov's works have the elements of "non-Russian nature". It also analyzes Harold Bloom's Misreading theory and the theory of the Anxiety of Influence.Chapterâ…¡focuses on Nabokov's novel Mary and his collection of short stories entitled Cholb's Return, analyzes elements of the Russian classical literature tradition, especially Pushkin's influence, and study Nabokov's views and interpretations about arts revealed in the two works.Chapterâ…¢dwells on King, Queen and Jack, Camera Obscure, and The Defense which were written during 1928-1932. The author mainly analyzes the "non-Russian nature" in Nabokov's works and his misreading of Gogol. Nabokov's misresding and reposition of Gogol makes the latter's art more classic.Chapterâ…£is the research on Nabokov's works during 1932-1940. It contains the analysis on Nabokov's misreading of Dostoevsky in Despair and Lolita under "the anxiety of influence". Under the influence of Dostoevsky, Nabokov substituted the development of the Stand-in Narrative Mode in Russsian literature to an unprecedented height. Gift is a concluding book of Nabokov's Russian years. In this highly autobiographical novel, he not only defended Pushkin's literary tradition, but also satired and criticized realism, and expressed his own unique view about the future of the Russian overseas literature, so it can be called Nabokov's declaration of literature.Chapterâ…¤focuses on the influence of the culture on Nabokov in the Silver Age and the Russian literary elements in his English works. The origin of his "Otherworlds" and "Cosmic Synchronization" can be traced to "the Eternal Feminine" of Russian Symbolism and Bely's "Symbolization". Nabokov's "Otherworlds" are always related to his theme of "Lost Paradise". The females in his Otherworlds have the same soul of self-sacrifice and devotion as the Eternal Feminine in Russian symbolism, but they are more earthly and can resuscitate only in transcendent worlds of Nabokov's protagonists. Nabokov's "Cosmic Synchronization" is similar to Bely's "Symbolization", both refer to the "Transcendent Reality" or "Transcendental Feeling" of their protagonists' inner world. In Nabokov's works, the heroes temporarily forget their pains of cultural exile by the means of the "Cosmic Synchronization" and mentally return to their "Lost Paradise".Chapterâ…¥dwells on analyzing Nabokov's ambivalence in the slef-idendity construction and his criticism and satire of aesthetics of realism advocated by Chernyshevsky in Gift. Nabokov has a strong complex of "Reverse Homesickness". Under the influence of Russian culture and anxiety of love for Russia, he identified himself with American writer, but at the same time he didn't deny his Russian cultural identy; he loved Russia, his motherland but hated the Soviet Union, the regime.The research aims to reach the following conclusion:Russian literary tradition had exerted a great influence on Nabokov. Russian Literary elements could be easily detected in both his Russian and English works. But the relations between Nabokov and the Russian literary tradition cannot be easily defined as "donor" and "acceptor". Under the influence of Russian culture, Nabokov inherited the Russian literary tradition in a creative way, which made him a great bilingual writer and great stylist in the literature history of the 20th century.