V. NABOKOB AND M. PROUST: FUNCTIONS OF PASTICHE IN “KAMERA OBSCURA”

The article discusses the issue of M. Proust’s influence on V. Nabokov and a group of younger Russian Emigre writers. During the 1930s Nabokov struggles to find his own style, and to take the best from his “literary teachers”. Nabokov manages to assimilate some Proust’s literary devices, but at the same time he ironically ridicules the intention of his contemporaries, authors of “Chisla” journal, to become “Russian versions of Proust”. He shows examples of pastiche and parody on different levels of text ranging from plot to “proustian” syntax. He wants to distance himself from blind imitation of Proust (in which he was accused by his rivals from “Chisla”) and to assimilate best parts of his style. That is the main artistic function of “proustian” chapter in the novel “Kamera Obscura”

Nabokov, Proust, literary influence, parody, pastiche