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Nabokov Studies 4 (1997) ANAT BEN-AMOS (Colchester, UK) The Role of Literature in The Gift ι This article1 offers a discussion of Vladimir Nabokov's last Russian novel, The Gift (Dar), published in 1937, which I consider to be his best literary work. The most interesting feature of this novel is its "literariness," both in the Formalist sense and as its subject matter, that is the presentation of literature as a central component, rather than a reflection, of reality. This is done by various literary methods and allusions and by an explicit discussion of literature and its place in the lives of the characters and especially the protagonist, the young Russian émigré writer Fedor Konstantinovich Godunov-Cherdyntsev. I propose a study of the role of literature in this novel through a close textual analysis as well as through an investigation of some inter-textual links which can contribute to a better understanding of this theme. 1. I would like to express my gratitude to Leon Burnett and Angela Livingstone from die Department of Literature, University of Essex, for long hours of inspiring discussions on The Gift and for their guidance and profound comments on numerous versions of my work. 118 Nabokov Studies One of the basic assumptions used in this article is the identity of Godunov-Cherdyntsev as the nanator as well as the protagonist of The Gift.2 It is not only me author's assertion that leads to this conclusion, but also Fedor's various declarations throughout the novel about his intention to use events mentioned in it for his future literary work, most notably the opening scene of the novel (11) and his relationship with Zina Mertz. Another assumption is that the novel is not supposed to be Fedor's autobiography but rather to present his artistic reaction to it, an intention he proclaims in his conversation with Zina toward the end of the novel (330-332). Thus the combination of his autobiography as a protagonist and his literary style and methods as a nanator creates the final product of The Gift. It is this double identity of Godunov-Cherdyntsev that gives the novel its specific quality as a work that both discusses and reproduces literary creativity, presenting literature as a main component in the reality of its characters and its readers. The place devoted to literary discussions in the novel—in Fedor's mind, in his conversations with others and in public gatherings—is unequal to the place given to any other theme in the novel. His dual position allows Godunov-Cherdyntsev, as is analysed in Alexander Dolinin's "The Gift," to ignore as a protagonist various signs of fate's attempts to unite him with Zina (the signs he comments on towards the end of the novel) and at the same time to recognise them as a nanator, who also understands the development of his own literary work.3 This 2. This double identity is revealed already in Nabokov's foreword to the English translation: "The last chapter combines all the preceding themes and adumbrates the book Fyodor dreams of writing some day: The Gift" (8). 3. See Dolinin, "The Gift." Some of Dolinin's observations are used here, altiiough his final conclusion tiiat Godunov-Cherdyntsev is not the author of The Gift differs from mine. My view corresponds more to Iuri Levin's analysis, mentioned below, which identifies the narrator almost always with the protagonist and declares that it is this identification that allows the reader to be intimately introduced into me world of the novel. Literature in The Gift 119 duality is made possible by the constant shifting of narration, something which is discussed in Iuri Levin's "Ob osobennostiakh povestvovatel' noi struktury i obraznogo stroia romana V. Nabokova Dar" and is later summarised as three modes of nanation by Dolinin in "The Gift" (161). These modes of narration are first person nanation at the time of the action described, first person narration from a distance of time and third person authorial omniscient nanation. As Levin argues, the last mode represents Godunov-Cherdyntsev's mature work in which he uses his own biography in order to create a work of art, in which...

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