thesis

Vladimir nabokov : pour une pedagogie du texte

Defense date:

Jan. 1, 1993

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Institution:

Nice

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Abstract EN:

Vladimir nabokov's writings never fail to tackle the question of textuality and especially centre on the double problem of text-reception (reading) and text-production (writing). Both nabokov's fiction and his autobiography are literally saturated with intertextual echoes and parodic games which convey the constant interplay of reading and writing within the books. But the actual nature of this interplay is also carefully - if sometimes obliquely - explored in nabokov's many lectures on literature, translations, interviews, and prefaces. These texts attempt to show both reader and writer at work and to demonstrate that the part the receiving end is supposed to play in reconstructing the meaning of a given text may well be just as essential as that of the producing one. This stance led us to devote part of our investigation to the analysis of the possible connections between nobokov's lectures and contemporary criticism. Obvious parallelisms appeared against a background of definite differences betraying what seems to be the nature of nabokov's complex view of textual matters and providing interesting insights into his own work as a novelist.

Abstract FR:

Vladimir nabokov se penche a travers toute son oeuvre sur la question du texte, et plus specifiquement sur les rapports qui s'y nouent entre sa reception (la lecture) et sa production (l'ecriture). Lieux permanents d'un jeu intertextuel et parodique, les romans et l'autobiographie font apparaitre ce double mouvement constamment present de relecture et de reecriture qui structure le texte. Cette importance de la relation etroite qu'entretiennent ecriture et lecture est largement exploree par nabokov dans ses cours de litterature, ses traductions, ses entretiens, ses notes et ses prefaces. Il s'applique a demontrer que le travail du lecteur constitue le complement necessaire du travail du createur et ne peut faire l'economie d'une demarche precise parallele a celle qui preside a la production du texte. Dans cette perspective, l'analyse des rapports existant entre le cheminement suivi par les conferences nabokoviennes et les postulats methodologiques de la critique moderne (notamment la nouvelle critique et la theorie de la reception) est particulierement interessante, tant par les evidentes symetries que par les differences tout aussi manifestes qu'elle fait apparaitre.