Summer Term 2005

Ardis, its Ardors and Ideologies
Measuring Vladimir Nabokov against Hélène Cixous

by

Heike Stindt

Magister: Germanistik/Anglistik/Angewandte Sprachwissenschaft

Contents

I. Introduction 3

II. Parody 4

A. Playing on genre 4

B. Playing with motifs 6
1. The body 6
2. Incest 9

III. Mise en abyme 10

A. Language and art 10

B. Philosophy and fiction 12

IV. Point of view 14

A. Van’s story 15

B. On closer inspection 15
1. Who speaks? 16
2. What does “really” happen? 17

V. Conclusion 19

Bibliography 21

I. Introduction

Up to this day, scientific research has examined Vladimir Nabokov’s penultimate novel Ada or Ardor: A Familiy Chronicle from a multitude of theoretical perspectives. But although it displays highly problematic relationships between the different sexes (and also between members of the same sex) and albeit the “male” narrative point of view demands a great amount of caution from the reader, purely feminist approaches are virtually non-existent. This might partly be attributed to the facts that firstly the splendour of Ada’s stylistic expression tends to distract the reader from its possibly “contentious contents” and that secondly Ada is generally regarded as a perfect example of a postmodern¹ novel and therefore considered to be immune to any allegation of adherence to fixed categories.

In the seventies of the past century, the French Anglist Hélène Cixous developed a feminist theory of writing, the so-called écriture féminine (cf. Waniek 7). The basis of this theory is formed by the assumption that patriarchal tradition organizes modern culture entirely in hierarchical dichotomies which lastly all stem from the paramount opposition 

Woman 
_______
Man .²

Cixous actually talks about a

Kette von Metaphern, wie sie die Kultur organisieren… immer Mond für die männliche Sonne*, Natur für die Kultur, Höhlung für die männliche Gewölbtheit, Materie für die Form.. Unbeweglichkeit/Trägheit für das Vorrücken und den Fortschritt, Erde, auf der sich der männliche Marsch abspielt, Gefäß…. Der Mann ist natürlich aufrecht, aktiv, schaffend […].[³] 

Diese Opposition zu der Frau verteilt sich unendlich auf alle Oppositionen, die die Kultur organisieren. Das ist die klassische, duale, hierarchisierte Opposition. Mann/Frau heißt auch automatisch groß/klein, überlegen/unterlegen… das heißt oben oder unten, das heißt Natur/Geschichte, das heißt Veränderung/Unbeweglichkeit. In der Tat ist alle Theorie der Kultur, alle Theorie der Gesellschaft, sämtliche symbolischen Systeme – also alles, was sich spricht, sich organisiert als Diskurs, Kunst, Religion, Familie, Sprache, alles das, was uns verhaftet ist, was uns macht – organisiert in hierarchisierenden Oppositionen, die zurückgehen auf die Opposition Mann/Frau, die nur aufrechterhalten wird durch eine Differenz, die der kulturelle Diskurs als “naturgegeben” versteht, die Differenz zwischen Aktivität und Passivität. (Cixous, 20-21)

The theory built on this observation is rather intriguing but as it also bears numerous inconsistencies it will not be applied to Nabokov’s novel. However, the observation itself seems plausible enough to justify a scrutiny of Ada, which may disclose whether the dichotomies listed by Cixous are – in a wider sense – maintained or deconstructed in the text.

II. Parody

A. Playing on genre

Before dealing with textual details, it might be appropriate to evaluate to what extent Ada sticks to certain literary discourses or, as Cixous would probably put it, to prevailing, maledetermined literary conventions, which means in fact to pose the question of genre.

Outwardly, the subtitle denotes Ada as a family chronicle. This classification is reinforced by the following genealogical tree (6-7) and the exposition at the beginning of Part 1 (9-10) which presents an overview of Van and Ada Veen’s aristocratic ancestral line. Nevertheless, this genealogy soon turns out to be rather deceptive as Van, the narrator of the story – indeed another problematic categorization which will be subjected to discussion in Part IV –, focuses almost exclusively on his own generation so that the text definitely shows greater resemblance to fictitional memoirs. Moreover the official family tree proves to be a farce hardly concealing the incestuous excesses among the relatives. Thus, the genres of both the fictional autobiography and the chronicle are parodied. For the feminist reader it is also of particular interest that in the course of such a corruption of the chronicle through the incest motif⁴ the principle of patriarchy, in which the father – simply on account of the temporal supremacy implied in his paternity – is turned into the family’s pre-eminent authority (cf. Schwalm 160- 161), is deconstructed as well.

Besides, not only the subtitle points to a certain genre. The main title Ada or Ardor itself alludes to the headings of typical Renaissance cycles of sonetts, which tended to include the name of an adored woman. This allusion indicates the ostensibly basic topic of Van’s story, his lifelong love for his sister Ada. For the lyric cycles’ titles generally displayed names which were, in their meaning, closely connected to Heaven or purity it becomes obvious that the Renaissance sonett is parodied here as well: the name Ada actually derives from the Russian term for Hell (cf. Hüppe 131).

[....]

1 In this paper the term “postmodern” is used in the same sense as in Barbara Hüppe’s treatise.

2 The concept of the binary system is widely drawn from Derrida’s philosophy of Deconstruction (cf. Babka 200).

3 The punctuation within this quotation has been kept.

4 This item will be taken up again in the following paragraph.