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Univesity of Cape Town BJORN MEIER , ,-' ~ Subversive Narrative Techniques and

Univesity of Cape Town BJORN MEIER , ,-' ~ Subversive Narrative Techniques and Self-Reflexivity in Vladimir Nabokov's The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire and Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle A Critical Investigation into the Application of the Theory of Deconstruction in Contemporary Literary Criticism DISSERTATION Presented in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Cape Town for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: J. M. Coetzee Arderne Professor of English Department of English Language and Literature University of Cape Town Republic of South Africa 4 March, 1999 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town II For (fill in appropriately) Copyright Bjorn Meier III Car qu 'est-ce que penser - si ce n 'est a autre chose? C'est Ie cours qui est beau, oui, c'est Ie cours, et son murmure qui chemine hors du boucan du monde. Que l'on tache d'arreter la pensee pour en exprimer Ie contenu au grand jour, on aura, comment dire, comment ne pas dire plutat, pour preserver Ie tremble ouvert des contours insaisissables, on n 'aura rien, de l'eau entre Ie doigts, quelques gouttes videes de grace bnllees dans la lumiere. C'etat la nuit maintenant dans nwn esprit, j'etais seul dans la penombre de la cabine et je pensais, apaise des tourments du dehors. Les conditions les plus douces pour penser, en ejfet, les moment ou la pensee se laisse Ie plus volontiers couler dans les meandres reguliers de son cours, sont precisbnent les moment ou, ayant provisoirement renonce ase mesurer aune realite qui semble inepuisable, les tensions commencent adecroitre peu apeu, to utes les tensions accumulees pour se garder des blessures qui menacent - et j'en savais des infimes -, et que, seul dans un endroit clos, seul et suivant Ie cours de ses pensees dans Ie soulagement naissant, on passe progressivement de la dijficulte de vivre au desespoir d'are -JEAN-PHILIPPE TOl'SSAIKT L 'appareil ph010 Words are very unnecessar.,', They can only do hann -DEPECHE MODE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks to all those in Cape Town who let me work in peace and in my own time. I am indebted to Professor John Coetzee for opening my eyes about Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire and for supervising this dissertation, as well as to Dr David Schalkwyk who introduced me to the then cryptic texts of Jacques Derrida. Closer to home, I would like to thank Anastasia for remain ing supportive throughout the past year. This dissertation was generously funded by the UNIVERSITY SCHOLARSHIP COMMITTEE of the University of Cape Town Private Bag, Rondebosch 7700 Republic of South Africa ERRATUM p.146: insert: Descombes, Vincent. Modem French Philosophy. Cambridge. NY: Cambridge UP, 1980 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ......................... \ ..................................................................... I I. DECONSTRUCTION 1.1. Principles of Deconstruction ......................................................................... 6 1.1.1. The "Concept" of Deconstruction .............................................................. 6 1.1.2. Differance and Temporality ...................................................................... 9 1. I .3. The Deconstructive Method .................................................................... 14 I. 1.4. Dissemination .................................................................................... 18 1.1.5. Iterability of the Sign and Grammar of the Text ............................................ 24 1.1.6. History as Transformation of Structure ....................................................... 29 I 1 7. Subjectivity and Meaning..................................................................... 34 1.1.8 Text and Textuality ............................................................................37 1.2. Deconstruction in Literary Criticism ............................................................. 43 1.2. I. Definitions ......................................................................................... 43 1.2.2. Grammar and Rhetoric ......................................................................... 49 1.2.3. Literariness of Discourse........................................................................ 54 I.2.4. The Aesthetic Code ............................................................................. 58 1.3. l\letafiction .............................................................................................. 65 1.3. 1. Definitions ......................................................................................... 65 1.3.2. Metafiction and the Evolution of the Genre 'Novel' ........................................ 70 1.3.3. Metafiction and Postmodernism ................................................................ 71 1.4. Deconstruction and Postmodernism ............................................................... 76 viii Contents II. VLADIMIR NABOKOV 2.1. (Euvre and Reception History ..................................................................... 80 2.2. Aesthetics ..................................................................................................... 84 2.3. Selected Novels ........................................................................................ 89 2.3.1. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight ........ ..................................................... 89 2.3.2. Lolita............................................................................................... 95 2.3.3. Pnin ............................................................................................... 100 2.3.4. Pale Fire .. ....................................................................................... 107 2.3.5. Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle .......................................................... 119 III. CONCLUSION 3.1. Deconstruction in the Novel ....................................................................... 132 3.2. Self-Deconstruction as Postmodernism in Literature? ...................................... 135 3.3. Deconstruction as Interpretation Theory ....................................................... 139 REFERENCE ................................................................................................... 143 INDEX ......................................................................................................... 153 ABSTRACT This dissertation has three alms. First, the establishment of the theoretical foundations of deconstruction and its appropriation by literary criticism. Sec ond, the application of deconstruction to the novels of Nabokov; it has to be stressed that this application is not itself a deconstructive reading, rather that deconstruction offers the interpretative horizon for an analysis of the inner logic of self-reflexivity in the novels in question. which is defined with de Man and against Derrida as a procedure of textual self-deconstruction. The procedure, evident in the proliferation of textual strategies in Nabokov's work, marks the point at which literary modernism transforms itself through the radicalisation of the critique of narrative, subject and meaning into a postmodern aesthetics of deconstruction. The interpretation of the novels then serves thirdly to pose the question of the value of the theory of deconstruction for the task of interpretation, or more generally. the value of deconstruction for literary theory. The interpretation of Nabokov's novels reveals a paradox: self deconstructive literature does not require a deconstructive reading. On the contrary, the textual deconstruction of meaning and reference requires the non-deconstructive standpoint of a coherent literary analysis for its demon stration. Comparably and conversely, a deconstructive reading presupposes a text and/or an author committed to the intention of a meaningful whole (how ever ambiguous). The author's distinction between deconstruction as a method of interpre tation and as a literary theory thus points to the limitations of deconstruction as interpretative method in relation to modern and postmodern texts precisely because of their metafictional affinity to deconstruction. Beyond this, how ever, deconstruction's treatment of the text as pretext for its own operations, taken to its logical conclusion, would dissolve the very cognitive object and interest of literary studies. INTRODUCTION This dissertation combines an interpretative interest with a question of literary criticism. On the theoretical side, I will be discussing 'deconstruction' as the French philosopher Jacques Derrida has developed it, while the literary anchor point will be a critical reading of a selection of Vla dimir Nabokov's novels. I will thus attempt to link a relatively recent philosophical and text theoretical school of thought that, with its global attack on the history of traditional western philosophy, brings up against itself Neomarxists as much as defenders of the established Ameri can literary criticism, with the work of an author that is marked by a proliferation of textual strategies. Reading Nabokov's novels it is interesting to detect an increasing aspect of reflexivity. this development, in fact, commands the aesthetic evolution of his entire novelistic work. Reflexiv ity here at first only means that the subject of Nabokov's writing is writing, or maybe language itself. Thus, he radicalises the concept of the modern novel, which stands for the loss of world and a subsequent tendency toward language. I believe, however, that with the application of 'subversive' narrative techniques that deconstruct both narrator-subject and meaningful dis courses. Nabokov's novels not only make the fullest use of the aesthetics of the modern novel but also eventually surpass it. The proposition of this dissertation is therefore that Nabokov' s non-mimetic literature is an expression of aesthetic self-deconstruction. The reaction to extremely reflexive literature is generally characterised by interpretative helplessness: in Anglo-American literary criticism Nabokov ranks among the most-critiqued authors of the twentieth century. The extensive history of the reception of N abokov' s work must thus draw attention to the limitations of a traditional literary criticism that is still operating with clear-cut concepts of 'meaning' that result from the generally felt loss of mimetic relationship between work and world. The aspect of reflexivity links literature to the theory of deconstruction. Point of departure for the textual analysis is the assumption that the formal construction of Nabokov's novels is highly reminiscent of the theory of deconstruction. It is this dissertation's theory that subjectiv ity. mimetics and meaning are deconstructed in Nabokov's texts. Deconstructive theory, critically examined, will thus be the interpretative background against which I will read Nabokov's novels. His critique of the traditional concepts of linguistic meaning and of subjectivity as the origin and centre of meaning will be captured through the ap plication of this theory. The subversive narrative techniques in his novels can be understood as Introduction the methods of textual self-deconstruction which were developed by Paul de Man: a rupturing, non-identifying reflexivity contained within literary texts. This analysis of Nabokov' s novels will therefore not be a deconstructive reading but will examine aesthetically realised deconstructive strategies; deconstruction will not be applied to the novels in question but will instead be located within the poetic texts themselves. With the departure from the poetics of mimetics in favour of a radically rupturing reflexiv ity. Nabokov surpasses philosophical uploads/Litterature/ subversive-narrative-techniques-lolita.pdf