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

This article examines Nabokov's works, analyzing the novels Mary, The Luzhin Defense, Despair, and The Gift, which he wrote in Europe during the early period of his emigration. Based on the literary activities of Nabokov's characters, the author explores aspects of biographical literature style. The main character expresses his personal attitude toward the surrounding reality through various forms of writing, such as autobiographies, biographies of others, diaries, poetry, and works considered “final pieces.” Through these forms, he conveys criticism of society, history, and reality. This literary activity covers a wide spectrum of Russian life in the past and symbols of Russian culture, which, like cultural memories, intertwine with the reality of life in emigration. The study applies close reading and comparative analysis methods, incorporating the theory of cultural memory as part of the research methodology. The novelty of this work lies in using literary creativity as a construction method to explain the critical attitude of characters and the author himself. Literary creativity is one of the main activities of the protagonists in Nabokov's early novels written in emigration and serves as an important channel for preserving Russian cultural memory. Nabokov skillfully uses literary techniques to convey his social critique and historical views, while simultaneously creating Russian narrative texts within the emigration context. This article examines the characters' literary activities in Nabokov’s novels as an object of study, allowing literature to be viewed as a field of cultural memory, as well as highlighting the generational context of biographical literature in the novels and its cultural connotation of memory. Through the "motifs" and genres in Nabokov's works, the “memory of genre” is explored, reflecting the socially critical attitude of both the main character and the author.

cultural memory, exile, biographical writing, Nabokov, Social criticism, Mary, The defense, Despair, The gift, genre memory