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Lecture "Vladimir Nabokov and His (Non) Return"

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When
now
22.04.2026 · 18:00
Where
Saint Petersburg
Библиотека «На Стремянной»
Intent
Socializing
About

The lecture on Nabokov raises one of the most painful questions of his biography and prose - is a true return to what has been lost forever possible? Through the theme of emigration, poems about Russia, and the fates of characters, the conversation will lead to the inner world of the writer, for whom the memory of his homeland was not a fact of the past, but a constant spiritual work. The theme of return in the life and work of Vladimir Nabokov always resonates particularly sharply. For him, the loss of his homeland was connected not only with geography but also with the loss of an entire world - childhood, familiar routines, the language of memory, and a sense of inner support. This is why the conversation about his emigration does not reduce to biographical facts. It touches on a much deeper question: can one return to what exists primarily in consciousness, memory, and literature? The lecture will discuss whether such a return has taken place - at least in a spiritual sense. This conversation is especially important for understanding both the author himself and his characters. Many of them carry within them the trauma of rupture, lost homeland, and lost childhood. Among them are very different characters, but they are united by a sense of displacement, falling out of the familiar world, and the attempt to rebuild a connection with themselves. Through them, the theme of emigration unfolds not as a historical circumstance but as an internal drama that defines the perception of time, memory, and one's own fate. Particular attention will be paid to poems about Russia, as well as the distinction between the physical and spiritual emigration of the author and his characters. This approach helps to see that exile for Nabokov exists on several levels at once. It is both life experience and a subject of artistic analysis, and one of the main nerves of his writing. For listeners, the lecture may serve as a way to understand more deeply why in Nabokov's world beauty, pain, distance, irony, and the desire to hold onto the vanishing so often intertwine. The meeting concludes the cycle "Worlds of Vladimir Nabokov," so it is especially important to have a final perspective on the biography and work of the writer.

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