Descriptions in V.V. Nabokov’s texts: perfecting techniques in competition with the cinematic language (to the 125th anniversary of the birth)

The article discusses innovative techniques for constructing descriptions in V.V. Nabokov’s texts "Camera Obscura" ("Laughter In The Night") and "The Enchanter". The relevance of the topic is due, on the one hand, to the unsettled issue of identifying invariant description features and attributing the peripheral forms of description. On the other hand, there are no works that fully reveal V.V. Nabokov’s technique of creating descriptions. The research is based on advances in the study of this author’s visual poetics, interest in which has been growing in recent years. The article used lexico-semantic, morphological, syntactic analysis of individual linguistic units. Moreover, linguostylistic text analysis, intertextual and semiotic analysis, content analysis were employed in conjunction with a comparative analysis of the two texts reflecting the dynamics of V.V. Nabokov’s individual style. The study has shown that descriptive fragments in the texts by this author mostly do not have clear boundaries and can overlap or alternate with the narrative even within the same sentence. The article proposes to call this technique "fusion style". It is concluded that one of the important functions of V.V. Nabokov’s descriptions is the embodiment of the film of life mega-metaphor. The language of description borrows techniques from the cinematic language, for instance, montage techniques, double exposure through superimposure, and sound images. The research has identified stylistic devices that can iconically embody cinematic language elements. These include blending, ellipsis, extended allusions, double similes, and paronomasia. The paper concludes that the density of these techniques in V.V. Nabokov’s texts increases as he gains mastery. It is shown that the writer objectifies visual poetics with the help of such linguistic means as embedded structures and absolute constructions, enumerations, groups of nominal sentences.

1. Barabtarlo G. A loner in a woman’s cap. Zvezda. 1996;(11):192–206. (In Russ.)

2. Borisov A. A. Models of stylistic comprehension of nature description: composition­-speech form "static description" and composition­-speech form "dynamic description". Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki = Philology. Theory & Practice. 2014;3–1(33):48–52. (In Russ.)

3. Brandes M. P. Text stylistics: theoretical course. 3rd ed., rev., enlarged. Moscow: Progress­Tradition; Infra-­M, 2004. 413 p. (In Russ.)

4. Bulavina M. A. On the issue of differentiation of functional and semantic types of speech. Vestnik Rossiiskogo universiteta druzhby narodov. Seriya: Voprosy obrazovaniya: yazyki i spetsial’nost’ = RUDN Journal of Language Education and Translingual Practices. 2008;(1):60–66. (In Russ.)

5. Valgina N. S. Theory of text. Moscow: Logos, 2003. 279 p. (In Russ.)

6. Voloshinov V. N. (Bakhtin M. M.) Marxism and the philosophy of language: basic problems of the sociological method in the science of language. Moscow: Labyrinth, 1993. 192 p (In Russ.)

7. Dvinyatin F. N. Five landscapes with Nabokov’s lilacs. Vladimir Nabokov: pro et contra: v 2 t. T. 2 = Vladimir Nabokov: pro et contra: in 2 vol. Vol. 2. Saint Petersburg: RCAH, 2001. P. 291–314. (In Russ.)

8. Drozdova A. O. Mandrake in the paradise garden: plant images in V. Nabokov’s story "The Enchanter". Vestnik Tyumenskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Gumanitarnye issledovaniya. Humanitates = Tyumen State University Herald. Humanities Research. Humanitates. 2022;8(4):60–76. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.21684/2411-197x-2022-8-4-60-76.

9. Laenho L. V., Dushkova A. M. Scenery unit of literary text: modern approaches and research perspectives. Vestnik Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Lingvistika i mezhkul’turnaya kommunikatsiya = Proceedings of Voronezh State University. Series: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication. 2020;(3):34–41. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.17308/lic.2020.3/2929.

10. Levin Yu. I. About "The Gift". Levin Yu. I. Izbrannye trudy. Poetika. Semiotika = Selected Works. Poetics. Semiotics. Moscow: Languages of Russian culture, 1998. P. 287–322. (In Russ.)

11. Smirnov I. "The book will laugh": Mayakovsky and the Briks in Vladimir Nabokov’s "Camera Obscura". Zvezda. 2020;(10):255–273. (In Russ.)

12. Functional and semantic units of speech: typology, initial models and principles of deployment / K. A. Rogova (ed.). Saint Petersburg: Zlatoust, 2017. 320 p. (In Russ.)

13. Khandarkhaeva I. Yu. On the issue of dynamic description. Vestnik Buryatskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Yazyk. Literatura. Kul’tura = Bulletin of BSU. Language. Literature. Culture. 2019;(2):56–62. (In Russ.)

14. Cherneyko L. O. How meaning is born. The semantic structure of an artistic text and linguistic principles of its modeling. Moscow: Gnosis, 2017. 208 p. (In Russ.)