On Monday, the Russian Department contributed to the University’s 175th Anniversary program Voices of Liberal Learning, as Jenefer Coates of Middlesex University in London presented her research on history, science, and art within Vladimir Nabokov’s literature.
“What could he possibly have known, what could he possibly have read?” Coates asked. “What kinds of principles are organizing [his texts]?”
A professor of comparative literature and translation studies, Coates’ project “Nabokov’s Medieval Perspectives” began with a fascination with the 20th century Russian author’s unique writing style and subject matter.
Coates found her first clue to understanding Nabokov when she discovered that the young writer received his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University in Medieval French. This body of literature is characterized by verbal rhythm, imagination, and the “fool” personality, she said. Medieval French works are also notorious for faulty crediting, Coates added.
“Once a work was published, it could be copied and distorted,” Coates said.
Medieval French writings were altered by uncensored scribes and were often printed without the author’s name.
“They became wonderful hunting grounds for people who wanted to explore the story they [were] reading,” Coates said.
After graduating from Cambridge, Nabokov worked as a translator of literature. Among other works, he translated Lewis Carroll’s 1866 novel “Alice in Wonderland.” Caroll’s book, Coates said, was written in the quest and fantasy genre also characteristic of Medieval French fiction. Nabokov carried this interest in searching and dreaming into his own writing, she said.
“Nabokov addressed his readers as dreamers,” Coates said. “We ourselves are being forced to be constantly on our guard. He wanted to explore the human psyche.”
Coates bridged Nabokov’s psychological interests with the science and art that she said typify his literature. In addition to writing, Nabokov studied optics, biology, and physics. Optics in particular plays a significant role in his works, according to Coates.
“It governs the way we see the world,” Coates said. “Art and science were very intertwined then. It empowered [Nabokov] to write the way he writes.”
Coates examined how Nabokov incorporated the artistic concept of visual perspective into his narration.
“We take the size of things to be a code for distance,” Coates said.
Nabokov, however, reversed this principle in his writing, especially through the use of anamorphosis, she said. An anamorphic image is distorted in such a way that a viewer can make sense of it only from a certain angle or position. In the same way that in anamorphic artwork a figure’s eyes are positioned at the edge of the image rather than being in the center, in Nabokov’s writing, Coates explained, large points are not important, but small details are significant. Key pieces of the story are detached form the main framework.
“Decoding is possible only by someone who knows the secret,” Coates said.
Nabokov made an art not only out of the content of his writing, but also out of its structure, she said. When writing, he recorded fractions of a story on separate cards. These fractions became dispersed pieces within the single, final piece, and posed a “game of cards” for readers.
“You as a reader have to gather them back up again,” Coates said.
The lecture was followed by a reception in the Russian Department.
Professor of Russian Language and Literature Priscilla Meyer invited Coates to complement her seminar this semester, “Nabokov and Cultural Synthesis.”
She praised the lecture’s contribution to Voices of Liberal Learning.
“[Liberal learning is about] making connections between all different domains of human knowledge and seeing how these are recombined by an artist,” Meyer said. “[Coates’ research] is a perfect model—that’s what culture is about.”
Student attendees were engaged by Coates’ examination of multiple fields of knowledge within one body of work.
“I thought the subject was intensely interesting,” said Erik Youngdahl ’10. “I thought it was interesting how it involved painting and was artistic, but also that mathematical and scientific communities were present.”
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