David Packman
Vladimir Nabokov: The Structure of Literary Desire.
University of Missouri Press, 1982. First edition. 0826203728 viii/122 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 5.75" x 8.75", is bound in red cloth, with black lettering to spine. Top edge of text block displays foxing. Book is otherwise in fine condition, with firm binding, clean and bright interior. Dust jacket exhibits light shelfwear.
"David Packman's scrutiny of Vladimir Nabokov's three major novels in English - "Lolita", "Pale Fire", and "Ada" - clearly illustrates a number of the different methodological options available today to the critic of modern fiction. This is an "aerial view" of Nabokov that builds on the works of two sets of scholars: Nabokov's critics and recent theoreticians of literature. Nabokov's brilliant late work deal directly with critical and theoretical issues that are of central concern to the literary community. Theoreticians have vigorously debated in general terms; Packman's study takes a new approach by examining Nabokov's works in terms of specific literary texts.
The author pays special attention to the theory of play, as elaborated by such philosophers as Johan Huizinga and Eugen Fink, and how it is at the heart of Nabokov's sensibility and fictive devices. Packman shows how contemporary theories of intertextuality are particularly useful for comprehending Nabokov's fiction, which often refers less to "reality" than to other texts. In this study, Nabokov is located within the "intertextual network", with special emphasis on his relation to an international avantgarde consisting of such writers as Jorge Luis Borges and Alain Robbe-Grillet."