Based on intertextual evidence in Nabokov's late novel Ada, this monograph traces the triad of memory, recollection and imagination, which is central to Nabokov's poetics and art of life writing, back to the works of St. Augustine of Hippo, who on the threshold of the early Middle Ages wrote the first autobiography and to whose autobiographical writings this triad is likewise essential.
Furthermore this book investigates to which extent the Augustinian art of memory influenced Nabokov's fictive autobiographies. By selecting a sample comprising Mary (Mashen'ka), The Gift (Dar), Lolita, and Ada, the continuous importance of the Augustinian paradigm throughout Nabokov's multilingual career is demonstrated.
Christoph Henry-Thommes
Augustinus, Aurelius Autobiographie Das Autobiographische Erinnerung (Motiv) Imagination Life Writing Memory Nabokov, Vladimir Nabokov, Vladimir V. Roman Theory of the Self autobiographisches Schreiben