The Abject Speaks Out: The Substantiality of Inner Heterogeneity in Nabokov s Pnin

The Abject Speaks Out: The Substantiality of Inner Heterogeneity in Nabokov s Pnin

Persisting against the pre-established symbolic trends has occasionally brought about new kinds of signification in literary works. Julia Kristeva speaks of an aloofness satiating the oeuvre of such figures as Lautréamont and Celine. This aloofness is in fact the disparaging force broadening the scope of the author’s focus, leaving the previous borders of signification in a state of destitution. Kristeva points out the disuniting power of such forces as abjection and its subsequent heterogeneity rummaging through many literary works. Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin embraces many such examples of inner heterogeneity leading to a bizarre construction of lingual dynamism the result of which elicits a rampant literariness in the novel. Kristeva’s theory of abjection contends the very borders of subjectivityand the issue of the subject’s encounter with what lies beyond. This paper, then, endeavors to elaborate on this matter by a close reading of the text, making use of Kristeva’sconcepts on the function of the text’s rhythm, syntax, and the inner notions of the work to elucidate this substantialheterogeneity further on, and eventually, the heterogeneous affect is accounted forby exemplary instances from the novel.

Persisting against the pre-established symbolic trends has occasionally brought about new kinds of signification in literary works. Julia Kristeva speaks of an aloofness satiating the oeuvre of such figures as Lautréamont and Celine. This aloofness is in fact the disparaging force broadening the scope of the author’s focus, leaving the previous borders of signification in a state of destitution. Kristeva points out the disuniting power of such forces as abjection and its subsequent heterogeneity rummaging through many literary works. Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin embraces many such examples of inner heterogeneity leading to a bizarre construction of lingual dynamism the result of which elicits a rampant literariness in the novel. Kristeva’s theory of abjection contends the very borders of subjectivityand the issue of the subject’s encounter with what lies beyond. This paper, then, endeavors to elaborate on this matter by a close reading of the text, making use of Kristeva’sconcepts on the function of the text’s rhythm, syntax, and the inner notions of the work to elucidate this substantialheterogeneity further on, and eventually, the heterogeneous affect is accounted forby exemplary instances from the novel.