The Interrelations of Science and Art in Vladimir Nabokov’s Fiction and Philosophy

FAIN: FT-53111-05

Stephen H. Blackwell
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Knoxville, TN 37916-3801)

Despite recent interest in Nabokov's research on butterflies, there has been very little response to the call to bring an understanding of Nabokov’s science to bear upon his art. The present ongoing study aims to provide a first such synthesis. The project sets Nabokov's art in the context of the biological, psychological, and physical sciences, and it explores the role that Nabokov's scientific thinking--his philosophy of science and knowledge--plays in his creative process. This approach offers surprising new readings of Nabokov's fiction and explores his compelling reconciliation of science and art.

Associated Products

The Quill and the Scalpel: Nabokov's Art and the Worlds of Science (Book)
Title: The Quill and the Scalpel: Nabokov's Art and the Worlds of Science
Author: Stephen H. Blackwell
Abstract: Most famous as a literary artist, Vladimir Nabokov was also a professional biologist and a lifelong student of science. By exploring the refractions of physics, psychology, and biology within his art and thought, The Quill and the Scalpel: Nabokov’s Art and the Worlds of Science, by Stephen H. Blackwell, demonstrates how aesthetic sensibilities contributed to Nabokov’s scientific work, and how his scientific passions shape, inform, and permeate his fictions. Nabokov’s attention to holistic study and inductive empirical work gradually reinforced his underlying suspicion of mechanistic explanations of nature. He perceived chilling parallels between the overconfidence of scientific progress and the dogmatic certainty of the Soviet regime. His scientific work and his artistic transfigurations of science underscore the limitations of human knowledge as a defining element of life. In provocative novels like Lolita, Pale Fire, The Gift, Ada, and others, Nabokov advances a surprisingly modest epistemology, urging skepticism toward all portrayals of nature, artistic and scientific. Simultaneously, he challenges his readers to recognize in the arts a vital branch of human discovery, one that both complements and informs traditional scientific research.
Year: 2009
Primary URL: https://ohiostatepress.org/books/Book%20Pages/Blackwell%20Quill.html
Primary URL Description: Ohio State Press page for book
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 081429197X
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Prizes

2013 Best Scholarly Contribution in the area of Nabokov Studies
Date: 4/23/2014
Organization: Nabokov Online Journal

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