Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wyman, Alina

Keywords

Vladimir Nabokov, Artist and Authorship, Despair and Invitation to Beheading

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

This thesis explores the role of the artist in Vladimir Nabokov's two novels, Despair and Invitation to a Beheading. In my thesis, I argue that in order for Nabokov's characters to become true artists and free themselves from the novel, they must emancipate themselves from the control of the author and compete with Nabokov for the authorship of their life stories. I specifically examine the two different creative spirits that Nabokov presents in his novels, and how these spirits interact with their external worlds. In Despair, Hermann Karlovich, is a self-proclaimed artistic genius that cannot see the autonomy of others and thus, projects his solipsistic fantasies onto the world around him. In Invitation to a Beheading, Cincinnatus C. must overcome the pressures of the artificial world that imprisons him by trusting the potential of his creativity. Unlike in Despair where Nabokov shows a false artist who incorrectly believes that an "artful" murder of another human being will establish his God-like power over everyone, making him the sole author of his life, in Invitation to a Beheading, Nabokov displays a character who has the ability to transcend into the role of a true artist once he manages to reject the authoritarian world in which he is imprisoned while simultaneously allowing his artistic spirit to come to fruition.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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