Absent yet Present: On the Paradoxical Nature of Characters in Nabokov’s The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

Authors

  • Irina Marchesini University of Bologna, Italy

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/6.3787

Keywords:

Russian, Nabokov, literature, absence

Abstract

The present research is focused on the theme of absence, an area of inquiry that might seem dominant in the field of Nabokov Studies. The analysis, which concentrates in particular on the key figures of the novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941), notably the narrator V. and the poet Sebastian Knight, interprets the characters’ construction through the paradigm of absence. Arguably, the construction of characters in The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is paradoxical: absence constitutes their essence at a core level, as it often happens in the context of the self-conscious genre. Moreover, absence plays a key role in characters’ design, linking them to all Nabokovian novels. However, despite their innermost ‘flatness’, to use Edward M. Forster’s terminology, they still appear to be ‘round’, i.e. plausible, mimetic figures.

Author Biography

Irina Marchesini, University of Bologna, Italy

Post doctoral researcher, University of Bologna, Italy

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Published

2016-11-15

How to Cite

Marchesini, Irina. 2016. “Absent yet Present: On the Paradoxical Nature of Characters in Nabokov’s The Real Life of Sebastian Knight”. Poljarnyj vestnik 19 (November). https://doi.org/10.7557/6.3787.

Issue

Section

Articles (peer reviewed)