Nabokov and the Russian Diaspora
In the Margins of Totalitarianism
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Beschreibung
This book presents a sustained and systematic analysis of the totalitarian topos across Vladimir Nabokov’s life and career. Contributing to the ongoing reappraisal of Nabokov’s writing in its engagement with politics and ideology, this study contends that the rise of totalitarianism constituted one of the most urgent, substantial and complex issues with which Nabokov and his peers in emigration had to contend. Yet while the precarious exilic status of the Russian diaspora not only made the spread of totalitarian ideologies and dictatorships an acute and tangible danger, it also, perversely, afforded its members exceptionally free scope to respond intellectually and creatively, as individuals outside and on the limits of these systems. This is the first book that critically and comprehensively examines Nabokov’s literary and intellectual responses to the rise of totalitarian systems and ideologies, contextualizing them within those of his peers in the first wave of Russian emigration.
Places Nabokov in his historical context, situating him as one of the foremost political writers of the 20th century Explores Nabokov's experiences in relation to his fellow émigrés in the Russian diaspora Includes previously unpublished archival material of interest to literary scholars, historians and sociologists
Autor*in
Bryan Karetnyk
Themen in »Nabokov and the Russian Diaspora«
History of Political Thought Vladimir Nabokov Totalitarianism Diasporic Literature Russian Emigration Fascism Exile
Stimmen zu »Nabokov and the Russian Diaspora«
“Nabokov and the Russian Diaspora: In the margins of totalitarianism meticulously documents how the novelist addressed the totalitarian regimes he witnessed from two ends of Europe. The book begins by situating Nabokov’s views on totalitarianism within those of the first generation of Russian émigrés to escape the Soviet Union. Here, Karetnyk’s range is nothing short of extraordinary.” (José Vergara, TLS The Times Literary Supplement, March 20, 2026)
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