Chapter 4: The Beetle and the Butterfly: Nabokovâs Lecture on Kafkaâs âThe Metamorphosisâ

Vivian Liska

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Chapter 4: The Beetle and the Butterfly: Nabokovâs Lecture on Kafkaâs âThe Metamorphosisâ

In: Vladimir Nabokovâs Lectures on Literature

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Vivian Liska

Vivian Liska
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 60â74

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004352872_006

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Abstract

In his lecture on Kafkaâs âThe Metamorphosis,â Vladimir Nabokov introduces his audience to his own views on beauty, his understanding of the relationship between reality and fantasy and his dismissal of symbolizing approaches to art in general and Kafkaâs stories in particular. Commentators of Nabokovâs lecture have pointed out incongruities between these theoretical reflections and his actual reading of Kafkaâs story and have accused Nabokov of a âlack of sensitivityâ in his discussion of crucial aspects of Kafkaâs art. The contradictions in Nabokovâs lecture, the excessive quoting and paraphrasing of Kafkaâs text and the narrow, radically formalist conclusion are indeed striking. However, rather than considering these aspects of Nabokovâs lecture as mere flaws, one can regard them as an effect of Nabokovâs unsettling encounter with the force of Kafkaâs story.

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Vladimir Nabokovâs Lectures on Literature

Portraits of the Artist as Reader and Teacher

Series:Â Studies in Slavic Literature and Poetics, Volume: 62Â andÂ Studies in Slavic Literature and Poetics Online, Volume: 62

Cover Vladimir Nabokovâs Lectures on Literature

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004352872

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 07 Dec 2017

Subjects
- Literature and Cultural Studies
- Slavic and Eurasian Studies
  - Literature & Linguistics

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Chapter 4: The Beetle and the Butterfly: Nabokovâs Lecture on Kafkaâs âThe Metamorphosisâ

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Vladimir Nabokovâs Lectures on Literature

Portraits of the Artist as Reader and Teacher

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Chapter 4: The Beetle and the Butterfly: Nabokovâs Lecture on Kafkaâs âThe Metamorphosisâ

Vladimir Nabokovâs Lectures on Literature