Vladimir Nabokov and Women Writers.

Abstract

This study sheds light on a heretofore neglected aspect of Nabokov studies: his attitude toward women writers and their literary art. Nabokov’s critical statements about women writers, ranging from dismissive remarks to fully negative reviews, have created for some scholars a view of him as “a literary misogynist” who wants to make his readers, especially women, feel stupid and powerless. I investigate whether there is any justice in branding him with such a label. Indeed, if taken literally, some of his declarations, because of their sarcastic tone, could lead to a false impression of the anti-female stance. However, a close analysis of some of Nabokov’s key works that express opinions about women writers (these include both fiction and non-fiction) suggest that in most cases Nabokov's opinions are based strictly on an author's artistic and stylistic tendencies and not on the author's gender. In my first chapter, I examine the nature of Nabokov’s critical statements in his reviews. In addition to addressing the poetics of a certain group of female writers, they express an important aspect of his literary vision in general. This chapter also examines Nabokov's literary relationships with his era's most prominent women poets: Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Zinaida Gippius. Their literary “shadows” appear in Nabokov's novels Pnin, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, the story “Vasily Shishkov,” and other works. My second chapter explores Nabokov's intertextual methods in the stories “A Slice of Life” and “The Admiralty Spire.” When viewed together, they provide a new more favorable perspective on Nabokov's treatment of women writers. My third chapter addresses the author’s representation of fictional literary women whose metaliterary role attests to Nabokov's own literary views. Nabokov's targeted critiques and his evaluation of the most gifted women poets and prose writers, his stylizations and parodies, his efforts to recast what was aesthetically weak in the works of others, and his metaliterary use of women writers as characters in his prose all point to a stance on artistic value that is independent of gender.