Who Discovered the Unknown Land? (The Double Motivation Device in the Works of F. K. Sologub and V. V. Nabokov)

Korzhova Inessa Nikolaevna PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Department of Domestic and Foreign Literature, Moscow Financial and Industrial University "Synergy" 462422, Russia, Moscow, Leningradsky Prospekt, 80 g clean24@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

"It seems to me that Sirin continues precisely the "insane", idle, cold Gogol line, picked up by Fyodor Sologub before him. From "Despair" to "Small demon" the distance is not at all great – if only to make a difference in the era, in the environment and culture" ^{[1, p. 119]}, – G. Adamovich wrote in 1934. In accordance with Adamovich's aesthetic criteria, this left the young author far from the literary Olympus. But, having abandoned the evaluativeness, it can be argued that with his unflattering review Adamovich pointed out to researchers one of the most interesting layers of the Nabokov intertext. O. Skonechnaya's work "Despair" by V. Nabokov and "Small Demon" by F. Sologub" ^[2] fixed this parallel. In modern literary studies, researchers have long gone beyond the scope of these two novels: O. Burenina discovers threads connecting "Despair" with Sologub's short prose ^[3], Y. Leving – with "Heavy Dreams", he includes "Gift" and "Invitation to Execution" in the circle of Sologub's influences ^[4], L. Bugaeva explores references to the "Created legend" in the unfinished novel "Solus rex" ^[5]. Behind the complex interweaving of texts, the contours of the root question emerge – about the points of convergence of the aesthetics of writers. The purpose of our work is to identify previously unexplored cases of Nabokov's appeal to Sologub's works and to consider possible aspects of the convergence of the writers' aesthetics.

IAlready the reviewers of F. Sologub's first novel correctly identified his favorite subject of the image: "dreams, visions, nightmares, chimeras, etc.

In this direction, he has achieved colossal and amazing results. His domain is between a dream and reality. He is a real poet of delirium" ^{[6, p. 179]}. Nabokov portrayed an equally masterly unknown land where the mind loses its power over consciousness. The masterfully executed transmission of the broken logic of delirium in his works was not an end in itself, but only allowed to maximize the distortions with which consciousness reflects reality. Showing the discrepancy between the objective and subjective images of the world in his best stories ("Catastrophe", "Pilgram", "Terra incognita"), the writer shattered the idea of reality, especially endowed with the self-confident epithet "authentic".

Researchers called the sources of the shaky world "Terra incognita" both "In captivity" by V. Bryusov ^[7] and "Red Laughter" by L. Andreev ^[8]. This list should be expanded to include F. Sologub's story "Summoning the Beast", especially since the similarity between the texts is not limited to the generality of the reception, but also manifests itself at the level of the plot. The heroes, exhausted by fever and probably delirious, are transported to another space, where circumstances require courage and dedication from them and eventually lead to death. Nabokov retains the spatial opposition built by Sologub: the tightness of a European-style room and green spaces under a high sky. Only hunting in the Mediterranean forests, blowing with night dampness, has been replaced by an expedition to the sultry tropics. This substitution does not violate the general principle: the path to exotic lands in both stories is laid by fever, only in one case the appearance of space suggests chills, and in the other – unbearable heat.

Nabokov not only adopts the scheme of events and their motivation, but also allows some techniques to flourish, only outlined by Sologub. Such is the transformation of space taking place right before our eyes. In The Summoning of the Beast, the walls recede, as if allowing the gaze to penetrate beyond them: "The light of the electric lamp became dim. The ceiling seemed dark and high. It smelled of grass, – its forgotten name was once tender and joyful" ^{[9, p. 68]}, gradually the landscape "manifests itself", and the hero notes how "bright stars lit up in the dark sky", "a stream murmured softly, monotonously and timidly in the silence of the night" ^{[9, p. 68]}. The boundary between the worlds is erected and destroyed instantly: "And, cursed, walls were erected around him..." ^{[9, p. 70]}, "A terrible roar shook the walls. There was a cold smell of dampness" ^{[9, p. 73]}. Nabokov's description of the transition is more subtle: using the technique of "translucent objects", he creates the effect of overflowing spaces. "I tried not to raise my eyes, but in this sky, at the very edge of my field of vision, white plaster ghosts, stucco arches and rosettes, which decorate ceilings in Europe, floated, keeping up with me, however, as soon as I looked at them directly, and they disappeared, instantly somewhere having sunk, – and again the tropical sky thundered with a smooth and thick blue" ^{[10, Vol. 2, p. 363]}; "A torn, hanging shirt sleeve revealed his forearm and a strange tattoo on the skin: a faceted glass with a shiny spoon, – very well made. <...> Cook slowly turned around, and the glassy tattoo slipped off his skin to the side <...>" ^{[10, vol. 2, p. 364]}. The objects of European reality do not just appear through a fictional picture, they determine the direction of the sick consciousness. Thus, the "golden reeds" ^{[10, vol. 2, p. 363]} were probably born from "paper wallpaper in reed-like, eternally repeating patterns" ^{[10, Vol. 2, p. 363]}. Sologub also left in the text a hint of a similar motivation of the landscape. But the solution slips through only once, in order to find it, it is necessary to return to the beginning of the story to a concise description, as if caused by the usual writer's "politeness" towards the thorough reader: "The window was hidden behind heavy, dark green, matching the wallpaper on the walls, but only much darker than them, curtains. Both doors <...> were firmly closed. And there, behind them, it was dark and empty – both in the wide corridor, and in the boring, spacious and cold hall, where sad plants separated from their homeland yearned" ^{[9, p. 65]}. Their smell will constantly reach the hero.

Finally, the pain experienced by the heroes will take on the appearance of a hungry beast. At Sologub, he will appear himself: "Merciless claws have pierced right into the heart. A terrible pain shot through his body. Flashing with bloody eyes, the beast bent down to Gurov and, cracking his bones with his teeth, began to devour his trembling heart" ^{[9, p. 74]}. Nabokov's hero will be destined to a painful death from thirst and fever. But as an echo of the Sologubov text, the delusional speeches of his companion will sound: "I said that we would be stuck here. A black dog is gorging on carrion. Mi-re-fa-sol", "I propose to profit from his meat until it dries up. Fa-sol-mi-re" ^{[10, vol. 2, p. 365]}.

The narrative manner of the predecessor determined, in our opinion, the significance of Sologub's text for Nabokov. M. Bakhtin defined its main principle as follows: "<...> the main feature of F. Sologub's short stories is the narration in two planes <...>. In the old novels, all the events fit into a single, integral, compact reality. In reality, ends meet, and only sometimes a lyrical impression of a different plan remains, as, for example, in Chekhov's “Black Monk” <...>. Sologub's duality is found everywhere, a single plan is not established" ^{[11, p. 146]}. Nabokov uses not only the same two-dimensional structure, but also the situation of choice between worlds, stated by Sologub. And here we enter the field of fundamental aesthetic differences, in order to continue the conversation about which it is necessary to determine what the two planes in each of the stories represent.

Nabokov's hero alternately stays on a bed in European furnished rooms, then under the stinging sun of the tropics. The narrative finds the hero on an expedition, where he catches a fever, and only after that the features of European life begin to appear. Where the hero actually is, remains not fully clarified, although subtle details indicate that the hero is destined to a completely unheroic death "with a notary and a doctor" (more on this in the comments of Yu. Leving ^[8]). It is important that the character is aware of the possibility of choosing which reality to accept for himself as authentic. The tragic and heroic world of African adventures as opposed to the "scenery" of European life is unequivocally recognized as such: it is he who is endowed with the fullness of life as opposed to the ordinary world of appearances. Among other stories with similar problems, "Terra incognita" highlights two points. Firstly, the author refuses to clearly separate the subjective from the objective, placing both spaces in the focus of the hero's vision, and secondly, he is burdened with the burden of choosing between worlds. These fundamental points only reinforce the connection of Nabokov's story with "Summoning the Beast", as they find correspondences in the latter.

In Sologub's story, the objective plan is also pushed beyond the boundaries of the narrative. The hero's illness is presented as he perceives it, through the appearance of small domestic undead and Fever, which exhausted the hero with its caresses. The fantasticism of subjective deformations only shows the features of reality, making its proximity to chaos obvious. This is how the hidden kinship is manifested in the image of everyday life and the new dimension revealed to the hero: both there and here, life is overturned and the layers of being are exposed. The story reveals the idea of metempsychosis developed by the revered Sologub Schopenhauer. The hero is given a chance to correct the past and kill the Beast. But he is in no hurry to choose a heroic path and hides behind the walls of the room, preferring communication with the small undead to the opportunity to defeat Evil. If the brave Gregson becomes a model for Nabokov's hero, then the feat of the boy Timarid, comrade Gurov-Aristomakh, is lonely. In his fate, the idea of a redemptive sacrifice, which is significant for Sologub, is realized. But with the usual irony, the writer shows that paid blood only multiplies Evil. Timarid, like Gurov, by his death only increased the bloodlust of the Beast.

So, Nabokov's hero transcends the inauthentic reality and finds himself, even in death, showing, according to Vl. Khodasevich, a type of genuine artist: "Finally, we must take into account that, except for the hero of The Spy, all the Syrian heroes are genuine, high artists. Of these, Luzhin and Herman, as I said, are only talents, not geniuses, but they cannot be denied a deep artistic nature. Cincinnatus, Pilgram and the nameless hero of Terra Incognita do not have those flawed features that Luzhin and Herman are marked with" ^{[12, p. 224]}. In the world of Sologub, with any choice, the character is doomed, the Beast defeats both the hero and the coward. But the difference between writers is not only in the opposite of the emotional spectrum. According to Broitman, "Sologubov's "superbeing" (or "meonal" otherness) cannot be confused with the "subjective beginning", although it is unthinkable without it" ^{[13, p. 916]}, Nabokov avoids entering the transpersonal plane, asserting the consciousness of an individual in the center of the world he creates.

IIIn 1934, Nabokov created the story "In Memory of L. I. Shigaev", in which he again entered the unknown land of hallucinations.

Although the story is written in the form of an extramural eulogy or obituary, the hero gets lost and talks about his own misfortunes, from which he was saved by the deceased. Suffering from the infidelity of his beloved, the hero drinks literally to hell. Twice such evil spirits appear on the pages of Nabokov's works. But if in the first case, in the "Fairy Tale", her presence was full of the infernal mystery of Hoffmann, now the tone of the description can not be called otherwise than Sologubovsky. Only he just as casually and scrupulously described various kinds of "domestic undead". The hero of the story "Summoning the Beast" saw them for the first time, catching them by surprise: "And the other day Gurov woke up sluggish, longing, pale, and lazily turned on the switch of an electric lamp to drive away the wild darkness of a winter early morning – he suddenly saw one of them: small, gray, shaky, light, flashed along the headboard, he mumbled something and disappeared" ^{[9, p. 65]}. Under the same circumstances, Nabokov's devils appear: "I saw them every evening, as soon as I came out of my daytime nap, in order to disperse the twilight that was already flooding us with the light of my poor lamp" ^{[10, vol. 4, p. 346]}. By their weighty materiality, they resemble rather the Soul-Connecting from Sologub's story of the same name. The place of localization of visions (on the table) and the "ink" motif accompanying the evil spirits turn out to be recognizable. "I remember I bought a dog whip, and as soon as there were enough of them on my table, I tried to pull them out properly <...>. But they all slowly gathered together again while I was wiping the spilled ink from the table and lifting the prostrate portrait" ^{[10, Vol. 4, pp. 346-347]}, "he flopped to the floor with a thick toad sound, and a minute later, lo and behold, he was already getting from another corner, sticking out his purple tongue from zeal <...>" ^{[10, vol. 4, p. 347]}. – "The freak sat down on the bronze crossbar of the inkwell, throwing off the reed insert of the pen with his foot to fit more comfortably" ^{[9, p. 32]}, "The guest jumped on the pointed lid of the inkwell, stood there on one leg, stretching his arms up <...>" ^{[9, p. 34]}. It is significant that the hero of "Connecting Souls" is almost the only character of Sologub trying to physically destroy the dark creature that appeared to him: he is armed against evil spirits with a penknife. But the way that Nabokov's hero chooses – to whip devils – seems to be even more suitable for his predecessor.

It remains to add that the name itself hints at the comprehension of the Sologub heritage. The invented anthroponym L. I. Shigaev, especially if you read it together with the initials, "Lishigaev", acoustically resembles both "shishiga" and "leshaka", that is, pedals the theme of petty impiety (although another interpretation is possible: initials consonant with the particle "li" dispute every sentence where they are mentioned). The very name of the hero is a derivative of "shigat". In Dahl's dictionary we find the explanation "to shig, to shig a bird, to stir up, to drive, to scare, to frighten" ^{[14, p. 632]}. The bird motif may hint at Sologub's real surname – Teternikov. Nabokov creates a parody, "exposing" the most famous Sologubov themes of delirium, devilry and violence and placing them in the frame of the obituary, where he says goodbye to the hero whose name is aiming at the same goal. According to the narrator, Shigaev "was completely devoid of a sense of humor, completely indifferent to art, literature and what is commonly called nature" ^{[10, vol. 4, p. 349]}, and he told his stories "so boring, so thoroughly" ^{[10, Vol. 4, p. 350]}, that I wanted to interrupt him immediately. But the warmth of memories of Shigaev does not allow us to call the settlement with Sologub final. Probably, the story can be called the artistic equivalent of the assessment that Nabokov would express much later in a letter addressed to E. Field: "<...> Rereading Sologub's poems, kindly sent by you, dear Andrew, I realized how, in fact, I have always admired the parts of this "dyachkov egg"" [citation 4, p. 500]. An example of how keenly Nabokov saw epistemological problems in metaphysical ideas that were generally alien to him can be the selection of the double motivation and plot technique from Sologub's story, which we considered in the first part of the article, and their masterful use to achieve their own artistic goals.

IIINabokov's attention to Sologub's stories with a double motivation of events became a natural continuation of his constant experiments in this field, which began in 1923 with the play "Death".

Here, for the first time, the author tried to create a stable balance between subjective and objective interpretation, which withstood any fluctuations from new arguments in favor of one or another reading. In the play, a cartographic metaphor was also found for spheres unknown to consciousness: "and in places I have not seen often / or completely unnoticed – fogs, / gaps will be – as on old maps, / where there is a note here and there: Terra / incognita" ^{[15, p. 88]}.

Sologub, like Nabokov, who proved himself in all kinds of literature, made similar attempts to embody the principle of double motivation on stage. Yu. Gerasimov, pointing to the writer's persistent interest in intergenerational transpositions, asks, "wasn't F. Sologub engaged in a kind of "alchemical" search for some universal way to overcome the "spell of walls" – genre partitions in order to bring the expected identity of Theater and Life closer?" ^{[16, p. 96]}. Guided by various philosophical and aesthetic ideas, Vs. Meyerhold, G. Craig, N. Evreinov, L. Andreev, A. Blok tried to change the perspective of vision in the theater, to find a new focus of the image that coincides with the personal refraction of being.

In line with such searches, Sologub is planning an arrangement of the story "Summoning the Beast". The idea remained unfulfilled and the sketches were published in the early 2000s, which excludes the possibility of Nabokov's acquaintance with this text. But it is all the more interesting to trace which paths the artists chose in drama, implementing the principles that led them to similar results in prose. In the draft of Sologub's play, the plot of the story is preserved (although, perhaps, the author intended to make some changes to the finale) and the transition from one space to another. But the effect of overflowing, not strong enough in the story, disappeared altogether. If the features of the Mediterranean landscape in the story gradually emerged under the hero's gaze, details were added gradually, now the transition is made quickly: "It's dark. The walls disappeared. [Forest. Bright] Field. Forest. The stars are bright in the black sky. Creek. Freshness" ^{[17, p. 98]}. The gray undead, who glided in the story in penumbra, became independent actors: A lamp, a Wall-Wall, a Window-Sill. Therefore, the metamorphoses of space are accompanied by replicas of beings: "Lamp. I'm going out. Ceiling. I'm melting in the night fog. Wall. Melting, melting in the night fog" ^{[17, p. 98]}. The anthropomorphic Fever already in the story acquires the independence of a separate being and receives a voice. In general, delusional drunkenness is filled with earthly heaviness. Probably, Sologub follows the techniques of Maeterlinck, who personified objects in the "Blue Bird". A fantastic world of hallucinations of the hero reigns on the stage. His point of view, which makes what is happening fantastic, is only strengthened. This does not destroy the double motivation of the event, but eliminates the shaky charm with which it was embodied in the story. The metaphysical reality that emerges through the fabric of being is obviously harmed by excessive externality. Tragic understanding of the nature of the universe is clothed in the forms found in the fairy tale.

In Nabokov's play "Death", only one plan of reality is presented, and the reader is only given to choose the position from which to evaluate it. Either everything that happens is the hero's thoughts burning beyond death, or he is alive and fully conscious, but somehow the world is presented through the prism of his perception. Unlike Sologub, Nabokov did not seek to convey the peculiarity of a confused consciousness. Actually, in his play, only the assumption itself remains fantastic that the hero has already died and what we have seen is an unstoppable run-up of his thoughts. The author designates the transition to the point of view of the hero by other means. Having not created a description of the room in the first picture, Nabokov gives it in the second picture in the replica of the hero. This is motivated by the fact that, upon entering Gonwil's familiar office, Edwin only looked at him with his usual gaze, not lingering on objects. Coming to himself after drinking the poison, he is already looking around with interest, as he expects to see his new, eternal abode. In addition, the interlocutor of the hero is designated in the remark "the man in the chair" and, only when recognized, acquires the name Gonvil.

These small details allow, however, to draw a conclusion about the fundamental divergence of the creative tasks of the writers. Obviously, Sologub focuses on the viewer's view, and demonstrates a little sophistication in purely staged moments. He knows that the scenery will not be able to constantly transform, that the viewer will not guess the hero's doubts about the existence of spirits, and makes all these moments unambiguous. Nabokov also finds no stage equivalents to his idea and transfers a number of techniques directly from prose, making them available only in reading (these are gradually emerging scenery, and an unrecognized hero).

 Both authors had more serious experience of presenting delusional consciousness on stage: Sologub's "The Little Devil" and Nabokov's "The Invention of the Waltz" and "The Event". In "The Invention of the Waltz" there is an unexpected resonance with the unknown Nabokov arrangement of "The Summoning Beast": both authors choose the method of personification of the state and introduce characters into the plays, which, in fact, should explain what is happening – this is Sleep and Fever. Fever remains a minor character. The realistic motivation that this figure provides is obscured by the boiling confrontation of the principles that are revealed under the thin film of reality. The beast and the domestic undead do not obey this ugly yellow-faced maiden. Dream, a character in Nabokov's play, acts as the antagonist of the hero. Despite similar means of implementation, Nabokov's problems are different – the relationship of a person with his own fiction, the boundary between reality and fiction.

The play "The Little Devil" is another attempt by Sologub to embody a double world and a double motivation in the drama. And again, the heavy fog of the hero's delirium that enveloped the novel thickens into concrete figures in the play. Nedotykomka not only has to take on a certain appearance, but also to talk to the hero. In the initial remark, it is stipulated that "every time she appears, everything on the stage becomes like nonsense – the lighting decreases, objects seem strange and threatening, their outlines become humanoid, people change, seem angry, mocking Peredonov, their faces and movements become excessively vulgar and vulgar, and then they themselves look like on visions of delirium <...>" ^{[18, vol. 1, p. 268]}. However, this remark is a clear call for help addressed to the director. Sologub himself does not show these changes in any way in the text of the play. If in the novel the main character is a "minus-demiurge" and "authorship" Peredonov is manifested in the fact that the plot of the novel becomes the realization and language of his delusional states <...>" ^{[13, p. 903]}, then in the play, in our opinion, he lost this power. He was allocated a small diocese with clear boundaries – the appearance and disappearance of Nedotykomki. Such a clear separation gave the rest of the scenes an objective status.

Nabokov's "Event" turned out to be a more successful example of the theatrical embodiment of reality fluctuating between reality and sleep. Nabokov wrote the play using either grotesque large strokes, or a thin brush of a realist. From this, the fabric of the play turned out to be uneven with the gaps of reality and the condensation of the absurd. The first director of the play, Yu. P. Annenkov, appreciated this feature as a way of depicting reality that has long been sought in drama: "Our life consists not only of real facts, but also of our attitude to them, of our dreams, of the confusion of our memories and associations, and for some reason one-sided extracts are required from the playwright: either – everything really, or - outright fiction" ^{[19, p. 166]}. But whose view combines truth and fiction? Modern researchers choose two fundamentally different approaches to the play, explaining the distortions of reality either by the author's attitude to parody, or by the inner state of the terrified hero. And this is the best evidence that the subjective vision reveals their true essence in objects. Distortion, conveying uncontrolled processes in the hero's soul, at the same time expresses the author's clear assessment of everyday life as a farce. To talk about the influence of the play "The Little Devil" on the "Event" can only be assumed. The coincidence of the key technique is obvious: the nomination of the point of view of the central character is due to the grotesque in the image of other actors. But if Sologub leaves this idea for the director to embody, Nabokov himself implements it in the fabric of the play. The lack of clear boundaries between subjective and objective vision also allowed Nabokov to preserve the principle of double motivation, muted in Sologub's play compared to his own novel.

It is obvious that Sologub and Nabokov share an interest in works based on the use of double motivation. The objective view of reality is shaken. The alternative subjective vision attracts Nabokov by itself, as it sets new criteria for authenticity – human subjectivity and creative, transforming intention of consciousness. Sologub in the works of the first half of the 1900s, which were discussed in the work, shows interest in the supra-event spheres, for which consciousness serves rather as an intermediary. If in Nabokov we choose between two points of view – subjective and objective, then in Sologub between two forms of perception of the world – pragmatic and mystical.

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