Memory, Space, and Exile in Vladimir Nabokov’s “A Guide to Berlin”
Marianne Cotugno
Publication: Volume 1 Issue 3
Abstract
“A Guide to Berlin” shows the triumph of the individual, artistic mind in response to German state-building following the disaster of World War I. Alluding to changes in the city brought about by war, the story demonstrates the conflict between the ways in which the state attempts to organize social and physical space, for example, through the establishment of new transportation systems, and how individuals experience that space. Rather than being oppressive, this clash becomes a source of power and self-preservation for the émigré narrator. The story represents Nabokov’s developing interest in how the individual subject can appropriate space through the imagination as a means of self-preservation in a world that threatens one’s sense of self.
Keywords: Vladimir Nabokov, exile, “A Guide to Berlin,” memory, space
Marianne Cotugno (cotugnm@miamioh.edu) is Associate Professor of English at Miami University, Ohio. Her research and publications address twentieth century American literature (Conrad Richter, Vladimir Nabokov), professional writing, and pedagogy. Dr. Cotugno is currently working on a series of publications and conference presentations addressing police report writing, including an article “Discursive Performances: The Gates Arrest and the Crowley Report.”