Confluence of factional and fictional as the structural basis in “The Gift” by Vladimir Nabokov

Abstract

The paper explores the interaction of factional and fictional aspects in Nabokov’s novel “The Gift” as the efficient artistic means used to arrange its narration structure. Describing the rise and maturity of Fedor Godunov’s literary gift and his keen, bright and fanciful individual perception of the world, the author undoubtedly exposes a replica of his own world outlook as a master of belles lettrés. The images of other two central characters are also autobiographical – Fedor’s beloved Zina, whom benevolent fate brings to him, as it happened once to Nabokov and his wife Vera; and that of his father, a natural scientist who lost his life in the expedition and was worshiped by Fedor like the author of the novel worshiped his. The confluence of factional and fictional is traced in the portrayal of many other personages, including N. Chernyshevsky, which extends artistic and structural perspective of the novel. The biography of Chernyshevsky, written by Fedor according to the plot and the evidence of O. Dark’s and A. Dolinin’s works, is also based on the documentary material. Fedor’s nostalgic reminiscences of his childhood and youth in Russia, reflected in his verse, have much in common with those described in his American memoirs. Thus, the permanent synthesis of factional and fictional in the narration from the protagonist’s childhood to his maturity becomes an efficient artistic means of composing the most sincere and intimate novel summing up Nabokov’s Russian émigrée legacy.