Award Date

1-1-2007

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Committee Member

Nicholas V. Lolordo

Number of Pages

92

Abstract

This study analyzes three texts by Vladimir Nabokov---Lolita, Pale Fire and Speak, Memory---and three by Gertrude Stein---"Patriarchal Poetry", "Poetry and Grammar" and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas---employing theoretical concepts from Deleuze and Guattari's Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature to argue that both writers use specific writing strategies to resist the category of nation and the traditional view of exile as an essentially painful experience. While Nabokov thematizes exile frequently, his views on nation and exile reside at a deeper level, visible as undermining conventional means of understanding language. I read in his concern for misrepresentation the overarching strategy of the three texts. Stein, on the other hand, does not thematize exile. However, I read in her focus on the materiality of language and on self-referentiality, strategies of de- and re-territorializing the English language. Both Nabokov and Stein resist cliches of the nation and exile.

Keywords

Analysis; Beyond; Exile; Gertrude; Language; Nabokov; Nation; Stein; Strategies; Vladimir; Writing

Controlled Subject

Literature, Modern; American literature

File Format

pdf

File Size

2344.96 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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