On The Narrative Art In Nabokv’s Ada Or Ardor: A Family Chronicle

As a Russian-born American literary master, Vladimir Nabokov is a distinctive figure in American literary history. Ada or Arodor: A Family Chronicle is Nabokov’s longest work and is initially given a mixed reception among readers. It is a novel combined with features of science fiction, encyclopedia, fairy tale and autobiography. Numerous metaphors, ironies, alliteration allusions and parodies prosper in this book. Yet despite of Nabokov’s great rhetoric writing skills and skillful use of multiple languages exhibited in the novel, its narrative is complex and the art of it is quite charming. The study on the narrative art will do some favor for the reader to better interpret and appreciate this novel.The body of this essay includes three parts. The first part will point out that Nabokov has constructed unreliable narrators and will make an analysis of the reasons for the unreliability and its influence on reader’s interpretation. The second part will, from the perspective of the time of narrative, mainly discuss the multiple layered narrations and intend to demonstrate Nabokov’s advanced craft of constructing a special narrative structure and extending the temporal dimension of narrative. At the same time, this part makes a brief analysis of the narrative order and narrative duration on the whole. The third part will analyze characteristics of the language of narrative and endeavor to figure out the exact effects of this mode that have on the general style of the text as well as on the reader’s interpretation. Through close reading and the analysis of these three aspects, this essay intends to disclose the fact that Nabokov is a great narrative master and a word player in Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, constantly seducing the readers to trust and distrust his narrative.