The Translator's Doubts ― Vladimir Nabokov and the Ambiguity of Translation

Using Vladimir Nabokov as its “case study,” this volume approaches translation as a crucial avenue into literary history and theory, philosophy and interpretation. The book attempts to bring together issues in translation and the shift in Nabokov studies from its earlier emphasis on the “metaliterary” to the more recent “metaphysical” approach. Addressing specific texts (both literary and cinematic), the book investigates Nabokov’s deeply ambivalent relationship to translation as a hermeneutic oscillation on his part between the relative stability of meaning, which expresses itself philosophically as a faith in the beyond, and deep metaphysical uncertainty. While Nabokov’s practice of translation changes profoundly over the course of his career, his adherence to the Romantic notion of a “true” but ultimately elusive metaphysical language remained paradoxically constant.

Julia Trubikhina received her PhD in Comparative Literature with a specialization in Slavic studies from New York University. She teaches in the Department of Classics and Oriental Studies at Hunter College, CUNY. In addition to articles and reviews in academic journals (most recently, “A Discrete Amalgam: New York Poets from the Former Soviet Union” in Canadian-American Slavic Studies), Julia Trubikhina (as Julia Trubikhina-Kunina) also published translations and contributed original poetry to Russian, European, and American anthologies and literary journals. She is currently working on two translation projects: a bilingual edition of poetry by Vladimir Aristov for Ugly Duckling Presse and a volume of poetry and prose by Elena Shvarts.