Aesthetic Bliss In The Otherworld Of Art

The aim for this dissertation is to examine the comprehensive aesthetic thought of V. Nabokov, a giant figure of postmodernist pioneers, in a fresh perspective of literary aesthetics, in prospect of calling more attention to Nabokov's great reflections on the art of fiction and his inspiring and revolutionary ideas about development of literature. In the introduction, attention is drawn onto revaluing Nabokov in the context of literary history, thereby the goal of research of this thesis is determined. The second chapter deals with the genesis of his aesthetics on fiction. The following three chapters comprise the main body of the thesis, including his three unique theories on art of literature: the origin of art, relating to Nabokov's insight into the true meaning of "reality", the nature of literary art, his pointing out that the true nature in a novel is none other than its intrinsically poetical, and his critic and reading theory on art.The most striking characteristic of Nabokov's aesthetics results from his "metaphysics in its original sense", i.e. the philosopher inseparable from his own philosophy , his philosopher being an integrated part of his personal life, like Socrates. On the basis of this , he is quite unique and creative in coming up with the thought that art as well as the appreciation of art, is coincident with the real world (the otherworld) in that they are all a kind of poem-creating activity. In this sense , we can clearly see the transcendence in his aesthetics lies in two aspects, one being his unique way of transcendental thought on fiction, the other being his emphasis on the four factors in literature, the artist—the world—the works—the reader, being all permeated by the "poetic spirit".