Although there exists a widely held belief that the acclaimed novelist and Cornell professor Vladimir Nabokov was an arrogant atheist, “nothing could be further from the truth,” says literary scholar Gavriel Shapiro, Professor Emeritus of Comparative and Russian Literature in the College of Arts and Sciences.
In his recently released study, “Exploring Vladimir Nabokov’s Creative Universe: Themes and Devices,” Shapiro argues that Christian faith influenced Nabokov’s imagination and shaped his fiction. Aside from a handful of scholars, Shapiro says, this attitude is largely overlooked or even dismissed. He wrote this book, which is available for preview online, to demonstrate that Nabokov’s worldview was informed by Judeo-Christian values.
The book begins with a discussion of the faith that Nabokov absorbed from his God-loving parents, and that became the source of his world perception. Shapiro contends that Nabokov’s faith rests on the following three “whales:” belief in otherworldliness, similitude between a creator and the Creator, and trust in the Divine.
Shapiro points out themes in Nabokov’s writing that originate in his faith, from moral dilemmas to cruelty to animals. Viewed together, these themes form a unique ethical system, Shapiro writes. Yet, Nabokov is not a moralizer. Instead, he invites his readers to form their own opinions and to accept responsibility for their actions.
Later in the study, Shapiro examines literary devices, from chromesthesia to iconicity to upside down, which highlight Nabokov’s desire to present a novel outlook on the surrounding world. By forging highly intricate and astounding connections among different spheres of experience and knowledge, says Shapiro, Nabokov motivates members of his audience to think outside the box and to make their own meaningful and unforgettable discoveries.
In honor of Nabokov’s birthday, April 23, Shapiro spoke with the College of Arts and Sciences about the book.
How did faith shape Nabokov’s values and, in turn, what he wrote about?
Nabokov was raised as an Eastern Orthodox Christian in a family of true believers and practitioners of the faith. Although not a churchgoer in his adult life, Nabokov imbibed from his parents the theological tenets that served him as the moral compass throughout his life.
One of the main tenets of Nabokov’s creed was the Golden Rule. Throughout his writings, he shows what happens when people forget this major ethical precept and disregard other humans’ feelings out of selfishness or even cruelty.
Where in Nabokov’s fiction do you find interdependence between his ethics and his aesthetics?
As I intended to show in the book, this interdependence runs like a red thread through Nabokov’s entire oeuvre. For example, in “Laughter in the Dark” and in “Despair,” in which one protagonist is an inferior art critic, and the other is a failed writer, Nabokov highlights the importance of moral decision-making, the severity of poor choices that lead to fatal mistakes, and the incompatibility between genius and evildoing.
Would you share an example where you see Nabokov’s faith-based point of view?
Here are two pertinent passages taken from Nabokov’s interviews. When asked whether he believes in God, Nabokov responded: “To be quite candid – and what I am going to say now is something I never said before, and I hope it provokes a salutary little chill – I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more.”
On another occasion, Nabokov said: “I believe that one day a reappraiser will come and declare that […] I was a rigid moralist kicking sin, cuffing stupidity, ridiculing the vulgar and cruel – and assigning sovereign power to tenderness, talent, and pride.”
