The Study Of How The Otherworldis Constructed Byvladimir Nabokov In His Short Stories

The otherworld is one of the main themesinNabokov’s short stories. Nabokov’s otherworld is the synthesis of the aesthetics and metaphysics. The thesis focuses on the analysis ofNabokov’s short stories to see how the aesthetics and metaphysics infuse with each other to form the otherworld. The analysis is conducted through the theory of Russian Formalism and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Imagination Concept.The thesis concerns the reasons why the metaphysics and aesthetics cannot be separated.First it illustrates, in the view of the Russian Formalism, the defamiliarized phenomena in Nabokov’s short stories not only brings the aesthetic pleasure but also manifests the mysterious and supernatural quality. Next the thesis explains that the creative imagination, from the point of Coleridge’s Imagination Concept, is the source of the defamiliarized phenomena. Nabokov’s imagination is the manifestation of his aesthetics and metaphysics.The whole thesis includes six parts. The first part of the thesis is the general introduction to Nabokov’s otherworld and his short stories. The second part is the literature review about Nabokov’s otherworld and his short stories. The third part is the literary theories, including: the theory of Russian Formalism and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Imagination Concept. The fourth part explains the link between the aesthetics and the metaphysics from the perspective of the defamiliarization. The fifth part analyzes the link between the aesthetics and the metaphysics from the creative imagination. The sixth part mainly concludes that it is the oneness of theaesthetics and the metaphysics that Nabokov aims to forge his otherworld.