Monsieur Nabokov and Mademoiselle O
01 Jan 2017-
About: The article was published on 2017-01-01. It has received None citations till now.
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01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: The case of Mademoiselle O is slightly different and exceptionally interesting because this text is both a memoir and a story, it pertains both to the world of autobiography and to that of fiction as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Mademoiselle O : “Would images belong to one specific tongue?”: the passage of frenchmemories of Russia into the english language ; ; This article aims at demonstrating that the ancillary function of translation cannot be valid with personal experience and moving memories at stake. When Nabokov resorts to self-translation he aims at ascertaining his identity as a writer in the language into which he translates. The case of Mademoiselle O is slightly different and exceptionally interesting because this text is both a memoir and a story, it pertains both to the world of autobiography and to that of fiction. Hence, the meeting of man and writer. The French text is more of a nostalgic reconstruction of a lost world and life than the English one, as if the emotions linked to one specific tongue could not be delivered in another. The most intimate sensations are erased in the English version as if narrator and actor were two distinct persons. The English is more an impersonal recording of events than a work animated by the breath of emotions, as the first Mademoiselle O of Mesures was. If the French is more awkwardly poignant, the English is more condensed and musically well-balanced. Obviously, the English author is at work in the second version whereas the author of the first did not have this ambitious objective.
2 citations
15 Nov 2004
TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of how plot, titular character and narrative voice relate to each other in the 1947 version, published in identical form both as independent short story and as chapter of the memoir Conclusive Evidence, yields insights into Nabokov's conception of the interrelation between memory and imagination.
Abstract: Published in five essentially different versions, on some occasions as short story, on others as part of his autobiography, Nabokov’s “Mademoiselle O” challenges the boundaries between the two genres. An analysis of how plot, titular character and narrative voice relate to each other in the 1947 version, published in identical form both as independent short story and as chapter of the memoir Conclusive Evidence, yields insights into Nabokov’s conception of the interrelation between memory and imagination. In this conception human consciousness reveals itself as a conditioning force acting on memory, suggesting the ontological impossibility of all autobiography. However, tensions created by textual passages that provide a contrast to the narrator’s version of events insinuate that consciousness has its limits, thus showing a way of saving memory from fiction, albeit on a subliminal level that undermines the narrative voice itself.
1 citations