Kissing Her Ellipses: Dreams and Narrative Texture in Nabokov's "Ultima Thule Theme"

Abstract:Vladimir Nabokov's short stories "Ultima Thule" and "Solus Rex," written and published in Russian between 1939 and 1942 were translated into English by Nabokov in 1973, after he'd conducted dream experiments using a method outlined by John W. Dunne's text, Experiment with Time. This paper explores the role and language of dreams in "Ultima Thule" and "Solus Rex," and how dream language and imagery contribute to the stylistic evolution of what D. Barton Johnson identified as Nabokov's "Ultima Thule theme" in the novels Bend Sinister and Pale Fire. The paper also considers classical and literary sources such as Edgar Allan Poe in the two stories and stylistic choices used to create the dreamlike texture of the prose, including repeated use of second-person narrative.