End-of-Life Art: Nabokov and Old Age as a Creative Challenge

• In Event: New Approaches to Nabokov’s Transparent Things

Abstract

In August 1971, while on a hike on La Videmanette over Gstaad, Nabokov told his son Dmitry that he "had accomplished all he had ever dreamed of as a writer” (Boyd 1991, 559). This unusually honest, almost humble, statement came during the 5-month break in the writing of Transparent Things, after it had been begun in October 1970, but before it was resumed and completed in November 1971-March 1972. My short presentation proposes to look at how, if at all, this unique sentiment is reflected in the novel, and generally what it could mean for the artist’s "need, a way of churning the world, as your digestive system churns food” (Amy Sillman) to “have accomplished all.”

Author

• Sara Karpukhin, U of Wisconsin-Madison