Social Criticism and Biographical Literature: Nabokov's Early Exile Writings from the Perspective of Cultural Memory

Khan' Yue PhD in Philology Associate Professor; Institute of Foreign Languages; Shandong Pedagogical University 1, University str., 1, Shandong, Jinan, 250014, China huiyuhan365@163.com

As you know, in Nabokov's early emigrant works, a completely new European emigrant environment is created with the help of a new emigrant environment and old memories. Russian Russian writing and the author's individual views, including numerous references to Russian cultural memory, fill this new space that arises between the past and the present. In his novels, Nabokov, through the literary activity of the main characters, introduces Russian memory into the emigrant life of Europe, forming a complex interweaving of time and space, which expresses the limitations and inconsistency of the emigrant context. In a broad sense, whether it is creativity itself or a cultural concept, literature is one of the most effective mediums, channels and ways to preserve cultural memory. Moreover, Nabokov repeatedly stressed that his writing is a special way of working with memory^{[15, p. 140]}, and his works can be considered as recorded memory. The author wrote in the novel as follows: "I am not writing, my impatient memory is writing"^{[9, p. 43]}. In this article, exploring the biographical literature and the individual positions of the main characters in Nabokov's early emigrant novels, we explain the unique biographical technique of the author, who transforms personal experience into the fate of his characters, expressing acute social criticism in an emigrant context. We will explore this social criticism on three levels. First, through the "motives" and genres in Nabokov's work, the "memory of the genre" will be analyzed, expressing the socially critical attitude of both the main character and the writer himself. Secondly, the features of autobiographical creativity associated with life in exile will be considered, as well as the conditions of its formation will be studied. This will explain the nature and complexities of life in exile, taking into account the social and historical context. Thirdly, at the level of detail, social criticism will be explored through images of things and cultural symbols, which are integral elements of autobiographical literature in the writer's work and express his deep and contradictory social concerns and life difficulties. The biographical context in his novels is characterized by a pronounced Russian narrative symptom, being the embodiment and representation of Russian cultural memory. Nabokov's work in exile was also a process of practical application of "art as a technique."

Nabokov not only repeatedly uses various forms of writing in his novels, but also through the technique of "creativity in creativity" creates multifaceted images of emigrants. These types of creativity include autobiography, biographical writings about others, diaries, poems, and even a kind of "last words" in the form of self-description. The writer, through the literary practice of his characters, reflects their attitude to reality, paying special attention to the historical context of biographical writing. Nabokov considers memory as a source of historical context^{[16, p. 79]}, and embodies individual memories and traumatic experiences in the literary work of his characters. The emigrant's literary practice, "creativity within creativity," becomes for the exiles a way of preserving cultural memory and a means of expressing their attitude to history. Of course, Nabokov rejects the interpretation of his works through socio-political and historical views. However, considering the interaction between creativity and the memory of his characters, one can find significant elements of social criticism, self-expression, and sometimes political sensitivity. In an interview, Nabokov argued that the preservation of memory is art, the choice of art, artistic integration and reinterpretation of real events ^{[11, pp. 180-181]}. For the main characters of his novels, "real events" in literary practice are created in the context of emigration; the "writers" in his works artistically encode these events and express their individual positions through traditional themes of Russian literature.

The introduction of memory as a perspective into the literary work of the protagonist reveals the productive function of the past in relation to the present, and also demonstrates various value orientations of the past and the future in a time perspective. Bakhtin emphasizes: "all memories of the past are aestheticized memories, whereas the idea of the future is always a moral idea" ^{[2, p. 250]}. In Nabokov's works, memoirs from an artistic and aesthetic position actually reflect the author's own critical attitude to social realities. Since the "real events" of individual memory are included in the category of memories, memory inevitably contains a forecast for the future of social reality. Of course, aestheticizing memory and projecting it into the future becomes a way to transform the present. The literary practice of the hero not only expresses a mediative perception of memory, but also demonstrates his attitude to life in exile, to revolutionary events in Russia and even anxiety about the fate of his homeland. As Proust noted, his work with memory was created not only to preserve it, but also to continue: if an artist projects himself into his work, then after his death his life continues ^{[14, p. 457]}. Nabokov also uses literary practice, striving to leave eternal life to his characters.

1. Social criticism within the framework of "motive a" and "genre memory"

Bakhtin's poetic concept emphasizes the memory of the genre, which is defined as the genre is the carrier of creative memory ^{[4, p. 140]}. A literary work is perceived as a single whole due to the structural significance of each of its elements, connected through a genre form ^{[19, p. 69]}. The memory of the genre emphasizes its social aspects and characteristics of historical memory. Bakhtin believed that the connection between Dostoevsky's polyphonic novel and the carnival form is connected precisely with the objective memory of the genre chosen by the author, and not with his subjective memory ^{[4, p. 160]}. Thus, there is an internal connection between content and form related to memory. The motif, as a recurring element of a literary work, is a standardized and ritualized abstract content capable of maintaining the structure of the novel and possessing constancy. Russian Russian poetry, therefore, expresses the continuity of the classical motifs of Russian literature in its characteristic national and historical memory. If we turn to Nabokov's literary activity, his genres and motifs express the specifics of exile both in form and content, and, being a stable text of Russian culture, they become carriers of collective memory.

In Nabokov's novel Mashenka, emigrants live in a boarding house in Berlin, where the old poet Pottyagin is forced to continue his path of emigration and go to Paris. Pottyagin is still devoted to Russian poetry and "he was inclined to simple human logic." ^{[13, p. 34]}. In this context, poetry acts not only as a symbol of Russian culture, but also as an expression of the memory of Russia, which is the basis of literary creativity. Even more importantly, in the conditions of emigrant life, poetry conveys the regulation of social belonging and historical memory. Russian poetry continues to perform the function of literary thinking associated with the national and collective memory of Russia. The "exile of poetry" in the novel symbolizes not just a cultural departure, but rather a migration of cultural identity. Moreover, emigrants continue to preserve the traditional aesthetic views of Russian literature on their subjects. They believe, "You (Pottyagin) are a poet, Anton Sergeevich, describe such a thing as femininity, beautiful Russian femininity, stronger than any revolution, experiencing everything — adversity, terror..." ^{[13, p. 34]}. Russian Russian woman's image, as a typical motif of Russian literature, thus acquires significance. Russian Russian religious philosophy is associated with the cult of women and with the concept of "The Mother of God saves Russia", which embody the traditional aesthetic ideal of Russian literature.

However, in the emigrant vision, Russian women are perceived through the prism of the "revolutionary movement"; their ability to "stand up to everything and survive" describes the history of emigration, full of "adversity and horror." The power of Russian women, captured in poetry, symbolizes the hope of emigrants to overcome current difficulties, which reflects the socio-critical importance present in the poetic text. Bakhtin argued that the internal, thematic predestination of the genre is also important ^{[3, p. 286]}. These two aspects together form the meaning of the literary work itself and determine its perception. He also adds that each genre covers only some aspects of reality, has its own principles of choice, a special form of observation and understanding of reality, as well as a certain scope and depth of penetration ^{[3, p. 286]}. In the novel, the emigrants' desire to create Russian poetry becomes an expression of their way of understanding modernity and history. The "lovely" Russian women who overcome current difficulties and especially revolutionary adversities reflect the real importance of poetry as a genre. However, poetry does not go beyond the theme of the Russian woman, but only expresses the demand for life in a constant form with the help of a genre form.

In the novel, the old poet once had doubts about the creation of poetry, but his work has always remained closely connected with life and never broke away from it. The poet claims that "I myself have made my life miserable with poetry, and now it's too late to start living again." ^{[13, p. 66]}. Following this principle, his work, of course, remains inseparable from the reference context. However, in the conditions of exile, due to the instability of the place of residence and old age, the continued existence of poetry became extremely difficult. Moreover, the exiled Alfyorov realizes that his wife "survived these years of horror", and "she will come here blooming, cheerful..." ^{[13, p. 34]}. Alfyorov suggests that the old poet dedicate a poem to his wife, using her as a theme, ^{[13, p. 34]} however, he resolutely rejects this proposal. The old poet's refusal to write about Russian women who grew up in difficult conditions and to turn to historical topics actually hints at the political views of the exiles.

In the novel, although everyone believes that they have severed ties with Russia, which is similar to Alferov's opinion — "it's over with Russia. They washed it off, like, you know, if you smear it with a wet sponge on a blackboard, on a painted face..." ^{[13, p. 35]}, they still adhere to the position of "don't talk about politics." At first glance, neither the writer nor the main character actually have political sensitivity ^{[20, p. 90]}. However, there is no doubt that the genre is an organic unity of the theme and the comments made on the topic ^{[3, p.288]}. The Russian theme is erased in the novel, as the verbal content in the genre of poetry is erased. The exiles mourn the Russian revolution, but "not talking about politics" is precisely a concern that is deliberately avoided. ^{[21, p. 409]} This is the same as Nabokov's own rejection and prohibition of political views and social critical views. Russian Russian politics and exile, Russian themes and Russian poetry are all unavoidable facts ^{[5, p. 113]}. In the reception of "creativity in creativity" Nabokov used Russian poetry as a literary practice and expressed a distinct political position from the point of view of literary criticism. Although the phrase "our motherland, therefore, has perished forever" ^{[13, p. 44]} seems vulgar and joking, but still there is a sense of regret hidden in her words.

Mirsky argues that Russian social criticism of the 19th century used "social" and "civil" techniques and concepts in literary works, considering them through the prism of social and political overtones, while writers might not have an explicit political orientation, but were obliged to convey reliable information about the current state of society. ^{[6, p. 711]} Before the advent of Marxist literary criticism, the political, social and educational impact of works remained an important starting point for their evaluation. ^{[6, pp. 712-713]} Indeed, Nabokov's philosophy of literary creativity emphasized technology and art, and he did not interfere in the literary process from the point of view of social criticism. Moreover, he considered political novels or literature with a social purpose boring.^{[10, p. 4]} Nabokov also stressed that his political principles are as stable as the three unities: freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of art ^{[10, p. 38]}. Despite this, limited by his experience in exile and memories of the Russian Revolution, Nabokov spoke openly about the shortcomings of Soviet literature: "The primitive mentality of the conclusion of power politics can only generate primitive literature and the art of imprisonment. The real talents are gradually being eliminated. A writer, a special personality, a fragile genius" ^{[10, p. 63]}. From this point of view, it is not difficult for us to reveal Nabokov's literary, critical and political position. It seems that the writer's works, free from social criticism, express "social" critical views. At least we can see a writer who defends liberal principles and "conveys reliable information about the current state of society."

In Nabokov's work, this kind of "reliable information" comes from various sources: the old poet's call to "not talk about politics" in Mashenka and his doubts about Russian poetry and creativity in The Defense of Luzhin; the continuing revolutionary influence on the formation of literature; literary practice "the art of crime" ^{[9, p. 128]} in "Despair" and judgments about Marxism and property; a call to memory written in prison in the "Invitation to Execution"... and so on. All these "literary practices" described by Nabokov have a pronounced connotation of social criticism. However, it is especially important that Nabokov masterfully includes social, historical and political judgments in the category of memories, expresses personal experiences of exile and childhood memories in his artistic practice, continuing to use the memory of the past to reflect current dilemmas and the reliability of "social status".

2. Biographical literature and its genesis

Nabokov not only combines thematic and genre coherence in social criticism, expressed through the image of the main character, but also in the genre of biographical literature, his novels also reflect an awareness of the writer's social problems. Although we do not consider Nabokov's work from the rigid point of view of biographical research, nevertheless, speaking about the genesis of biographical writing in his works, we can see a double context — the image of life in exile and Russian cultural memory. Biographical writing in Nabokov's major novels often manifests itself in the creation of characters, often through the literary attempts of the protagonist, and there are many variations of biographical forms. Writing biographies about others and about yourself are two different observational approaches. Of course, at the stage of individual identity, the description of "who I am" cannot be fully recorded from birth to death ^{[1, p. 135]}. However, Nabokov immerses biographical writing in the context of exile, consciously using someone else's point of view to record an "incomplete" individual life, emphasizing the context of the description from the point of view of another.

In Nabokov's novel "The Defense of Luzhin", old Luzhin writes a biography of his son, a brilliant chess player, while in his image he "gave his son the features of a musical rather than a chess prodigy", and the son is also shown as "sickly, something angelic" ^{[8, p. 88]}. "This image of his son, purified from all impurities, brought to the utmost tenderness" ^{[8, p. 88]} Thus, in the eyes of old Luzhin, the son acquires an overly idealized and distorted image. At the very beginning of the novel, the cold, alienated relationship between the son, who was in his teens, and the father is described. Thus, the alienation between generations generates a "fake" biographical letter. The father-son relationship is not only deeply alienated in the family dynamics^{[15, p. 89]}, but also maintains the same distance during their exile in Berlin. Old Luzhin imagines that his son "sometimes visited him in Berlin, answered questions in monosyllables, sat with his eyes closed and left, leaving an envelope with money on the windowsill" ^{[8, p. 88]}. In this biography, old Luzhin has no illusions about his son and describes in detail his indifferent expression. As readers, we can see characters in childhood memories of Russia reflecting family and intergenerational cracks. The divorce of his parents, aversion to studying and the death of his mother — all this explains where the distorted image comes from in the biography of Luzhin's son.

However, the context of creating a biography presented by Nabokov is not limited only to family relations between generations. Old Luzhin in his biography claims that his son will die, and "he will die young, his death will be inevitable and very touching. He will die playing his last game in bed" ^{[8, pp. 88-89]}. The traces of his life in the biography of old Luzhin are completely filled in, and even plans to start the book with the death of his son. The method of retrospective narration in the biography hints at an inverted life, where the linear course of life in the biography of old Luzhin is "artificially distorted". In Luzhin's biography, an "indeterminate personality" expects the reader to trace from death to life. Of course, biographical writing is a combination of personal experiences and events, and the described object is usually presented with a certain identity in the narrative. However, in Luzhin's biography, the reverse chronology of life is specially chosen. On the one hand, this symbolizes the "reverse maturation" of the brilliant chess player Luzhin throughout the novel, and Nabokov hints at character development through biography. On the other hand, the writer deliberately focuses on the fiction of the biography and the reverse order, which metaphorically reflects the reverse effect of the social environment on the personality.

When old Luzhin decides to rewrite the beginning of his son's life from the reverse, his thoughts return to his memories of his son's upbringing — "1914, the war on the threshold", "which so prevented the memory from working on a coherent literary plot, he and his son and Valentinov went abroad again" ^{[8, p. 89]}. The main problem of biography is the war, and it is she who seriously interferes with the recording of "real" memories. However, the significance of the war is not limited only to this: old Luzhin also cannot forget how "His son's gift really developed only after the war, when he turned from a child prodigy into a maestro" ^{[8, p. 89]}. "The war" becomes an important milestone in the biography, and therefore it becomes an important context for the formation of Luzhin's biography. The distortion caused by the war leads to a distortion of the character's image and emphasizes the "reverse" trace of life. Moreover, Nabokov speaks frankly about the impact of the war: "Now, almost fifteen years later, these years of war turned out to be an irritating hindrance, it was some kind of encroachment on the freedom of creativity, because in every book describing the gradual development of a certain human personality, one should somehow mention the war" ^{[8, p. 90]}. The interaction of biography and war is revealed in the process of growing up of the character. Luzhin does not face exile directly, but his transition from his Russian childhood to the chess world of Europe symbolizes the very movement of exile and historical influence. The inevitable external factors of interference become an important historical context for the formation of a biography.

In addition, biographical writing is also present in Nabokov's novel The Gift. Nabokov himself claimed that "The Gift" is his longest, best and nostalgic novel in Russian. ^{[10, p. 15]} The novel tells about the literary path of the young writer Fyodor, and an important part of the novel is the biography of Chernyshevsky (The Life of Chernyshevsky). Although Nabokov consciously maintains a distance between himself and the main character, as if refracting his experience through stories about the fate of his father ^{[18, p. 89]}, about the life of the hero and his love, all this carries echoes of the writer's personal biography. In the novel, Nabokov forces his hero Fyodor to write a biography of Chernyshevsky, expressing in it his own understanding of Chernyshevsky's life and artistic views. We will not talk about its historical significance, but from the point of view of the context of the creation of Fyodor's biography, the novel contains pronounced social criticism. The hero of the novel, exiled to Berlin, believes that "politics ... meant nothing" ^{[7, p. 47]}. But despite his lack of interest in politics, Nabokov deliberately introduces political nuances into the text: "all this stupid alternation of pacts, conflicts, exacerbations, friction, discrepancies, falls, rebirths of innocent towns into international treaties" ^{[7, p. 47]}. Obviously, the complex political environment could not be ignored, it reflects both Russian history and the political regime in Germany.

The disordered socio-political context creates absurd and even mystical elements of doppelgangers in the novel. In order to understand Chernyshevsky's biography, Fyodor needs to "put his soul into someone else's soul" ^{[7, p. 47]}, or "When Fyodor Konstantinovich transferred to Alexandra Yakovlevna Chernyshevskaya, he fell into the soul" ^{[7, p. 48]}. It should be recognized that "It was a world of prophetic predictions, premonitions, mysterious combinations, a world that, in fact, was a hundred times more ghostly than the most abstract dream." ^{[7, p. 47]}. Such a phantasmagoric and magical real world gives a mystical touch to biographical writing. Chernyshevsky in the novel personifies not only the great personalities of Russian literature and history, but Fyodor describes him as part of family history, trying to make him a link between Russian literature and history. Writing biographies of historical figures does not seek to present personal experiences, but rather describes the macro-context of family and national memory in a historical background. Indeed, Nabokov noted in the preface to the English edition of The Gift that: many aspects of the book reflect the story through artistic techniques, including "the rude and absurd contempt of Russian emigrants for local residents" and "the influence of growing dictatorial regimes on the main character of the novel. The meaning of the novel is the themes of "exile" and "dictatorship", which contain pronounced social criticism.

These two elements also reflect the dual social reality of Russia and emigration. From the point of view of chronology, the biography of a character represents the content of individual memories, but in the context of a political background, Chernyshevsky's biography not only displays personal memories, but also serves as a tool for social and historical assessment. Moreover, the biographical writing in the novel connects the past and the present in the character's life. When the main character walks through the night streets of Berlin with Chernyshevsky, he feels that the streets they walk along are familiar to him, "and even bought in advance in his future memory a place near St. Petersburg, an adjacent grave" ^{[7, p. 69]}. If Fyodor writes a biography of Chernyshevsky in order to present the path of personal growth and the macrotext, then here "his future memory" transfers the past and present to the future. Biographical writing, which began with memoirs, not only masterfully creates fiction and ordinariness, but also expresses the denial of life in exile and absurd politics. Russian grave" and "place" substitution not only indicates the end of an individual's life in the biography, but also transfers St. Petersburg to Berlin, which symbolizes the hero's belonging to the Russian house. The beginning and end of life in biographical writing do not coincide with historical development, they serve as a guideline in a socio-historical context and merge with the flow of time.

3. Social criticism in subject writing and cultural symbols

In Nabokov's works, subject writing is not just a description of the material world, but often includes deep social criticism. The existence of objects in his novels is closely related to the logic of the narrative. The intertwining of social structure, historical context and cultural symbols is often revealed through the symbolism of objects and the interaction between them and characters. Being cultural symbols, these objects carry tension between the individual and society, and also reflect the author's criticism of the social, political and cultural environment. Moreover, Nabokov's works devoted to objects often have a strong semiotic meaning, and through the description of these objects and details, he creates a language of social criticism.

The object of biographical writing is "people", however, to express the inner feelings of his characters, Nabokov introduces elements of writing about subjects. Nabokov's literary works not only reflect the individual experiences of the characters and historical experience, but also carefully reveal the writing of objects as tangible evidence of cultural memory. Russian cultural memory is represented in a variety of cultural symbols, but Nabokov combines things with illusions, intentionally introducing missing physical evidence, which allows him to convey the realistic meaning of real objects in the context of time and space. In the novel Mashenka, the old poet Potyakin believes that his poetry should be everything in his life, but it is too late to become such a figure. The work almost does not describe the inner experiences of the poet, and attention is focused on the external scenes of the house, which are presented as real objects: "a passing train", "a screeching steam locomotive", "window glass", "lampshade", "corner of the table" and "bent back" ^{[14, pp. 66-67]} of the old poet. The third, neutral look emphasizes a sense of belonging, and the physical objects present create an atmosphere of loneliness and silence.

Nevertheless, the main theme of the writer is not so much internal memories as the absence of the old poet's passport. He cannot go to Paris because he has not received a passport. Although Paris would only be the next stop of his exile, the passport itself, being a pass, symbolizes the absence of Russian identity, which hints at his current predicament. For Nabokov, the passport becomes a kind of "placenta" ^{[11, p. 554]}, a link between the Russian memory and the present state of the hero. However, the passport, which the old poet could not obtain, becomes material proof of his absence, being traced throughout the entire journey into exile. Russian Russian passport may evoke memories of the "Russian village", "Russian summer" and "park trails", being a physical proof of absence, it not only carries the burden of these Russian memories, but also represents a gap in cultural memory^{[17, p. 154]}. Moreover, the missing passport, like Masha, runs through the entire narrative line of the novel, being, as it were, a complete field of memory of Russian culture, but at the same time it is always absent from the life of the exile, becoming a hidden, implicit narrative motive.

The "Invitation to Beheading" also uses the theme of a prison recording. The main character Cincinnatus strives to leave his personal mark for future generations through self-recording. The novel is replete with absurd images of objects: it feels like the only black spot in a "transparent" prison, books can be drilled in prison... The novel's absurd narrative style concerns not only the prison setting, but also literature itself as a biographical genre. Cincinnatus himself and his biography are not absurd, but the very act of writing, which takes place under close supervision, makes the "true" records absurd. As the truth in the novel is distorted, so is the biography of the hero. In order for the prisoners to accept the fact of their execution, absurd prison guards and jurors break through the walls of the prison, making resistance impossible. The "destroyed" structure that has passed through the walls of the prison seems physically absent, but the metaphorical meaning of this missing object also indicates that barriers and shackles are part of the invisible presence that always accompanies life in prison. Russian Russian was the language of the prison rules, the jailers cursed in Russian, and the soldiers wore "masks of Russian wolf dogs." All the elements related to Russia looked absurd and vulgar. Self-recording, despite its fictitiousness, has the meaning of self-expression. The letter, enveloped by the invisible walls of the prison, becomes a metaphor for the gravity of the exile's position.

Thus, in the novel Invitation to Beheading, objects and scenes in prison form a two-way structure of absurdity and social criticism. Cincinnati's life in prison is surrounded by material walls and an indifferent society. Despite the fact that the external situation is absurd and illogical, these objects really exist and carry social stereotypes and a cold attitude towards criminals. However, paradoxically, these material things do not cause the protagonist of the novel any surprise — they have become an integral part of his daily life and represent an endless cycle of foreshadowing his death. Through letters about subjects, Nabokov demonstrates the depression and disadvantage of the exile's position, while simultaneously reflecting criticism of the social structure. With the help of these absurd objects, Nabokov not only criticizes the fate of the individual, but also reveals the pressure and control of society and the cultural system over the individual.

It is obvious that Nabokov's subject writing is not limited only to reproducing the material world, it is also a deconstruction and reconstruction of cultural symbols. Through descriptions of passports, prisons and a number of other material objects, Nabokov creates a system of cultural symbols that not only bear the life experience of the protagonist, but also serve as a deep reflection on Russia's past, modern society, ^{[21, p. 409]} history and cultural memory. Through these objects, Nabokov reveals the identity crisis and social criticism in the exile's life, and these hidden forms of social criticism give his works a multilevel interpretation, making them a deep study of social reality and cultural memory.

Conclusion

In the novel, Nabokov deliberately does not represent the Russian writing of memory, but the writer uses cultural symbols to depict the reality of Russian society. This metaphorical meaning is as real as the high walls of the prison. Russian Russian doesn't seem to have any memories in prison, but the symbol of the "Russian" never disappears, which underlines the absence of the Russian revolution and historical shackles. It is obvious that exile does not destroy the threshold, but creates new barriers to life. Real objects as cultural symbols and texts of memory are not always present, but Russian memory always lives in emigrant life. Like memory itself, Russia and its past permeate all memories of exile, being an absent presence. Nabokov relied on these cultural memories to express his personal critical attitude towards Russian society and reality. Literary means or biographical writing are both methods through which Nabokov expresses his social criticism: nostalgia, criticism, hope, etc. Thus, it can be said that "art as a technique" is an integral part of Nabokov's creative practice throughout his life.