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Published: 2023-03-05
No. 1 (181) (2023)

From the Poetics of the Title to the Structure of Sense — On Two Titles of One Short Story by Vladimir Nabokov

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Section: Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.31261/pr.14883

Abstract

Catastrophe and Details of a Sunset. On Two Titles of One Short Story by Vladimir Nabokov: From the Poetics of the Title to the Structure of Sense

The subject of the analysis in the article is V. Nabokov’s short story Catastrophe which in the proces of authorial translation into English received a new title – Details of a Sunset. Starting from the poetics of the title the following matters were considered: 1. creation of a hero in love – „half-god” Mark endowed with luminous attributes, connecting him with the mythical sphere (Eros, Amor), with the pre-beginning (Eden, the motif of childhood) 2. the category of the „sensitive narrator” – an involved observer of the events; 3. the oneiric sphere present in the short story refering to the myth, connected with the human drive towards higher values, with the eternal desire for happiness; 4. imagery and symbolics of the setting sun. It has been demonstrated that the mode of the sunset description and the alteration of the short story title allowed the author to accentuate axiological dimension of the literary work and thus set the relationship with the reader postulating a particular „elevation” to another level of understanding. Methodological inspirations for the presented considerations were taken from Roland Barthes’ reflections, who by evaluating the word in the discourse points towards its sense-generating function.

Keywords:

Nabokov, Catastrophe, Details of a Sunset, hero in love, sensitive narrator, onirism

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Citation rules

Ułanek, M. (2023). From the Poetics of the Title to the Structure of Sense — On Two Titles of One Short Story by Vladimir Nabokov. Przegląd Rusycystyczny [Russian Studies Review], (1 (181), 28–49. https://doi.org/10.31261/pr.14883

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No. 1 (181) (2023)
Published: 2023-03-05

ISSN: 0137-298X
Ikona DOI 10.31261/pr
Publisher
Polskie Towarzystwo Rusycystyczne oraz Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
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