Author(s)

Wang Na ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of English Studies, Xi'an International Studies University, Xi'an, China

Corresponding Author

Wang Na

ABSTRACT

Cloud, Castle, Lake is one of the representative short stories by Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov. The work has garnered academic attention and discussion for its unique narrative structure and profound thematic depth. The story follows the journey of Vasiliy, an exile, who seeks spiritual solace through the interplay of memory and reality, yet ultimately fails to escape the constraints of his circumstances. Scholars have analyzed the novel from perspectives including exile literature, memory narrative, and existential struggles. This thesis applies Bakhtin's Chronotope Theory to explore the protagonist's survival dilemmas in a heterogeneous culture and his pursuit of an idealized existence by interpreting the closed chronotope, the path chronotope, and the idyllic chronotope within the story. Through an analysis of the metaphorical significance of these chronotopes, the thesis reveals Vasiliy's struggle between memory and reality.

KEYWORDS

Cloud, Castle, Lake, Bakhtin's Chronotope Theory, Nabokov

CITE THIS PAPER

Wang Na, An Interpretation of Cloud, Castle, Lake from the Perspective of Bakhtin's Chronotope Theory. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2025) Vol. 8: 86-90. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2025.080213.

REFERENCES

[1] Stegner, P. (1966). Escape into aesthetics: The art of Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Dial Press.
[2] Field, A. (1967). Nabokov: His life in art. Boston: Little, Brown.
[3] Pifer, E. (1980). Nabokov and the novel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
[4] Tammi, P. (1985). Problems of Nabokov's poetics: A narratological analysis. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.
[5] Boyd, B. (1991). Vladimir Nabokov: The American years. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[6] Boyd, B. (1990). Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian years. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
[7] Connolly, J. W. (Ed.). (1999). Nabokov and his fiction: New perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[8] Bakhtin, M. (1981). Forms of time and of the chronotope in the novel. In M. Holquist (Ed.), The dialogic imagination: Four essays by M.M. Bakhtin (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
[9] Nabokov, V. (1995). Could, Castle, Lake. In D. Nabokov (Ed.), The stories of Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Vintage Books.  
[10] Bakhtin, M. (2009). The Complete Works of Bakhtin (Volume 3). Shijiazhuang: Hebei Education Press.

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