Vladimir Nabokov: From Modernism To Postmodernism

Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian-born American novelist, is generally acknowledged as a unique and distinctive figure in the history of twentieth-century American literature. Nabokov often gives rise to controversy in criticism. Many critics acclaim him as one of the finest stylists and one of the greatest novelists in American literature. Taking Lolita as an example, Harold Bloom holds that where Nabokov can hardly be overprized is in his achievement as a stylist. John Updike called him "grandmaster" and argued that, in the intensity of its intelligence and reflective joy, his fiction was unique and scarcely precedented in American literature of his time. Nevertheless, there are unfavorable criticisms on Nabokov. Donald E. Morton argues that Nabokov stresses too much on subjectivity, which makes his characters sound like solipsists, like individuals completely wrapped up in their own mental worlds. It is as if they have no sense whatever of the objective existence of an outer reality. Jonathan Raban deems that his English is a shaky blend of grammarian's pedantry and miscued slang. The language of the novel is itself a hyperactive mongrel of English, French and Russian. Nevertheless, Bloom's judgement on Nabokov is equitable: If Nabokov enjoys a somewhat inflated reputation at this time, at his best he remains a considerable figure in the history of American literature.Although there is already significant criticism in western countries on Nabokov, this dissertation would cast a new angle of view on Nabokov's fiction and argue that Nabokov's uniqueness does not only lie in his writing style, his Russian aristocratic background, or the combination of scientific preciseness and artistic imagination in his presentation of reality, but also in the fact that his novels are imbued with modernist and postmodernist elements, performing a link between modernism and postmodernism in twentieth-century American fiction.Nabokov himself loathed being labeled as any school during his lifetime, yet it would not be farfetched and, on the contrary, would be highly necessary toHIexamine his canon within a larger evolutionary scope of modern and postmodern poetics. Especially, Nabokov's works did not attract much attention of the Chinese literary and critical circle until after the Cultural Revolution. Up to now, compared with the considerable amount of Chinese translations of Nabokov's novels, there is hardly any research on his entire oeuvre except excellent criticisms on his individual works by some Chinese prominent scholars. It is hoped that this dissertation will be beneficial for further study of Nabokov's life and works in China.As the cultural outcome of modernity, modernist literature is a rebellion and rejection of traditional realism. Modernity is the inevitable result of Enlightenment regardless whether it is the original aim of Enlightenment, and, at the same time, modernity is the home of modernism, regardless of the fact that modernism remains harmonious with or rebels against modernity. Postmodernlty and postmodernism are two different concepts. The former describes our socio-economic, political and cultural condition, while the latter refers to changes, developments and tendencies which have taken place in literature (and other fields) in postindustrial society.It is generally acknowledged that postmodernism is not a linear cultural era after modernism since it shares many aesthetic traits with modernism. Ihab Hassan points out that modernism and postmodernism are not separated by an Iron Curtain or the Chinese Great Wall. In agreement with Hssan's opinion, this dissertation argues that writers at the same age might not necessarily belong to the same literary school, but the same author can write both modernist and postmodernist works in different periods. Nabokov is a good case in point. To achieve the goal of defining Nabokov's experiments as a modernist novelist and his shift as a postmodernist practitioner, detailed discussions are given to show why Nabokov's novels split along modernist/postmode...