Translating Autobiography into Fiction Chiasmus and the Play of the Authorial Mind in Hamlet and Pale Fire: Chiasmus and the Play of the Authorial Mind in Hamlet and Pale Fire

The traditional view of Nabokovian criticism holds that Shakespeare's Timon of Athens is the major intertextual source for Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire. In this paper, I will argue that Hamlet, not Timon of Athens, is the major source for Nabokov's rewriting. To do so, I will us...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Borrowers and lenders 2015-10, Vol.9 (2)
Main Author: Ungureanu, Delia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Argument structure
Assassinations & assassination attempts
Autobiographical literature
Autobiographies
British & Irish literature
English literature
Fiction
Intertextuality
Memory
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich (1899-1977)
Novels
Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeyevich (1799-1837)
Russian literature
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)
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Summary:The traditional view of Nabokovian criticism holds that Shakespeare's Timon of Athens is the major intertextual source for Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire. In this paper, I will argue that Hamlet, not Timon of Athens, is the major source for Nabokov's rewriting. To do so, I will use historical, biographical, linguistic, stylistic, and rhetorical arguments, and examine chiasmus as a structural device used both by Nabokov and Shakespeare.
ISSN:1554-6985