Fictionality workshop 4

"The Question of Fictionality in Nabokov and Others"

[examines four ways in which Nabokov seems to problematize the issue of fictionality: the contamination of the boundary between nonfictional preface and fictional text; the publication of the same text ("Colette") as fiction and as nonfiction; the requiring of some knowledge of the author's life and work to properly interpret a fictional text; and authorial intrusions into the fictional world. These analyses in turn lead to some larger questions and conclusions concerning the nature of fictional representation.]

Respondent: Porter Abbott (University of California, Santa Barbara)

General discussion to follow, with reference to Nabokov's "First Love."