Riddle Of Being

Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian-born American novelist, plays a leading role in many literary fields: poetry, short story, play, translation, criticism, biography and autography. He is recognized as a unique figure in the 20th century American Literature due to his versatility. Despite of the fact, criticisms of his works are not unanimously positive. They fall into three groups: namely, thoroughly negative, highly appreciative, and comparatively neutral. According to the negative criticisms, Nabokov is just a stylist, because he is predominantly preoccupied with techniques rather than with connotations. Opposite to the negative criticisms, there are also positive ones such as those given by John Updike. In John Updike's opinion, Nabokov's works are so unique that they have distinguished him from his predecessors, such as William Faulkner, James Joyce. He is therefore called by John Updike the "grandmaster". In between the above two conflicting attitudes towards Nabokov, there is also a moderate and neutral attitude toward him, represented by Harold Bloom's fair comments. Bloom considers Nabokov as a considerably important figure in the history of American literature, performing a link between Russian literature and Western literature in 20 century.Compared with the favorably discussed classical works such as Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957) and Pale Fire (1962), Transparent Things (1972) is one of Nabokov's works less touched upon. An examination of Nabokov's techniques, the evolution of his worldview, and his relationship to the literary currents of his day, which seem to bring together many essential characteristics of Nabokov's novels, is the goal of this thesis. It would firstly explore the pivotal role of narrative strategies in Transparent Things, and then puts emphasis on how Nabokov's artistic ideas are approached and illuminated by those general sketchy but quirky techniques. By doing so, it intends to make a contribution to Nabokov criticism through a case study of Transparent Things.The thesis consists of three parts: Introduction, Body, and Conclusion.Chapter One first gives an introduction to Nabokov's life experience and literary career in general, and concisely discusses his relationship to modernism and post-modernism, then offers a brief evaluation of Transparent Things. The evaluation shows that Nabokov's post-modernist feature is reinforced by this work, as far as thetechniques and artistic ideas are concerned.Chapter Two tries to make an analysis of Nabokov's techniques used in Transparent Things from three aspects: mysterious narrator, conjuring structure and embedded text. The thesis holds that the identity of the narrator is meant to create a riddle in the novel. By this device, Nabokov invites his readers to participate in the working out of the plot. After a logic reasoning, the reader will figure out that the narrator is Mr. R. and his "umbral companions." It can be argued that the narrative is depicted from the "quotidian" and "mnemoptical" points of view and the magic world depicted in Transparent Things has nonlinear and fractal structure, and this conjuring structure makes room for Nabokov's contrivance of embedded texts, in which the characters, writers, editors are interlocked. The text Tralatition within Transparent Things is a metaphor in a narrative sense, indicating Nabokov's self-referential, metafictional features.Although Nabokov is considered as the master of great style and pattern, his themes of works are also fantastic and unfathomable. Chapter Three illustrates how Nabokov's themes are reinforced by such patterns and how his world and creation are influenced by the relationship of memory and imagination, his outlook on life and death, and his concept of otherworld.In order to get out of the predicament of the protagonist Hugh Person, Nabokov uses imagination to make up for the limitation of memory. The combination of memory and imagination gives Nabokov a full freedom to examine the present and past in life as well as the space involved in the events, and creates something anew. "Otherworld" is a brand-new idea created by Nabokov in many of his works. It is a realm contrary to the mundane world, and inhabited by ghosts. In the "otherworld", the ghosts can perceive from their transparent points of view and get a deeper insight into the mundane world.The concept of "otherworld" does not indicate Nabokov's pessimism in his works. Instead, he is a writer with great passion. Chapter Four analyzes Nabokov's artistic ideas. After discussing Nabokov's two-leveled reality, it shifts to the detailed analysis of "transparency". Transparency firstly means the "otherworld", where everything is transparent despite of the nuance, and refrained from the trap of time and solitude of self. The second implication of transparency is the state that Nabokov aspires for his readers. When all the opaque surfaces and hard obstacles are removed, the reader is confronted with a transparent core and reach the anesthetic bliss.After the decoding of the mysterious Nabokov's muse-like Transparent Things, the Conclusion offers an understanding of Nabokov and his transparency. Transparent Things offers varying degrees of transparency, like a cut diamond, depending on a reader's angle. The "riddle of Being" is solved by transparency.