Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives

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Awarded the Jane Grayson Prize by the International Vladimir Nabokov Society Shortlisted for The European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) Book Award Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives addresses the many knotted issues in the work of Vladimir Nabokov Lolitas moral stance, Pnins relationship with memory, Pale Fires ambiguous internal authorship that often frustrate interpretation. It does so by arguing that the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, as both a conceptual instrument and a largely unnoticed influence on Nabokov himself, can help to untie some of these knots. The study addresses the fundamental problems in Nabokov's writing that make his work perplexing, mysterious and frequently uneasy rather than simply focusing on the literary puzzles and games that, although inherent, do not necessarily define his body of work. Michael Rodgers shows that Nietzsches philosophy provides new, but not always palatable, perspectives in order to negotiate interpretative impasses, and that the uneasy aspects of Nabokovs work offer the reader manifold rewards.

Reviews

Like many Russian writers during the Silver Age, Nabokov was familiar with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Rather than providing a traditional study of influence, however, Rodgers uses Nietzschean themes that surface in Nabokovs workincluding eternal recurrence, amor fati, master-slave morality, the bermensch, and productive experiences of moral disorientation and perspectivism (which demands individuals active engagement with truth) to examine, often with insight and subtlety, problems in interpreting the author and his writing that have haunted Nabokov studies for decades. * International Vladimir Nabokov Society *
Nabokov and Nietzsche identifies a new, previously unexamined and capaciously illuminating intellectual context for the writings and opinions of this migr Russian novelist turned international celebrity, even as it provides a wide range of insights into contemporary Nabokov criticism. * The Russian Review *
Offers a much richer and more complex engagement with Nabokov and Nietzsche, as [Rodgers'] book exemplifies the productive ways literature and philosophy can be read together, can reflect but, more importantly, challenge each other ... Well organized. * Slavonic and East European Review *
Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Perspectives is the first in-depth examination of the relationship between Vladimir Nabokovs writing and Friedrich Nietzsches philosophy. Rodgers delivers on his promise to provide an interesting contribution that covers an existing lacuna in the Nabokov studies. His book is engaging reading for all those interested in the history of ideas and in the adoption of philosophical concepts by modernist literature. * Yuri Leving, Professor of Russian Literature and Film, Dalhousie University, Canada *
Michael Rodgers study, initiated by his discovery of Zarathustra on a book list compiled by Nabokov in Bolshevik Russia in 1918, constructs an engaging and compelling argument for the validity of reading Nabokov in the light of Nietzschean thought. Through its lively and insightful analysis of Nabokovs fiction, criticism and auto/biography, set against the principal tenets of Nietzsches philosophyeternal recurrence, the fluidity of truth and the bermenschNabokov and Nietzsche enriches our responses both to problematic issues of transgression, alienation and discomfort across Nabokovs work, and to fundamental questions of morality and metaphysics. * Barbara Wyllie, University College London, UK, author of Nabokov at the Movies and Vladimir Nabokov (Critical Lives) *
Nabokov was certainly influenced by Nietzsche because almost every European writer in his generation was, but this subtle and intelligent book takes us far beyond the question of direct debt. A series of astute readings of key moments in Nabokovs work suggests that his achievement was the creation not of bliss, as he said, or of pure art or indirect morality, but of a complex uneasiness that is the artistic measure of the unsettled world Nietzsche set us on the path to understanding. * Michael Wood, Professor Emeritus of English, Princeton University, USA *
Michael Rogers' book Nabokov and Nietzsche: Problems and Prospects is of great interest. Its author offers something more than a comparative study offers a fascinating journey through the world of Nabokov's works Rogers' concept as a whole is compelling, fruitful, and indeed allows us to see the many intersections between Nabokov's work and Nietzsche's philosophy. * Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie (Bloomsbury Translation) *

Author Bio

Michael Rodgers is Associate Lecturer in English Literature at the Open University, UK. He is co-editor, with Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, of Nabokov and the Question of Morality: Aesthetics, Metaphysics and the Ethics of Fiction (2016).