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I had to look it up to see what you meant. You are referring to the fact that the book was written in English. But would it not still be considered Russian li
by swimfar 11y ago
I had to look it up to see what you meant. You are referring to the fact that the book was written in English. But would it not still be considered Russian literature, at least in some sense? I mean, his "true" Russian works are still considered Russian literature even when translated into English, so why would a book by the same author not be considered Russian if he initially wrote it in English? Or are all his books written after moving to the US considered to be English literature? Would that be the case even if one was written in Russian?
These are honest questions, I don't know (and had never thought about) how literature is classified in this sense.
- gizmo686 11y agoNabokov is a relatively weird case. He grew up in a tri-lingual house (Russian, English, and French), and learned to write English before Russian.
- marincounty 11y agoI'm curious too. Vladimir Nabokov's family came to America in 1940. They were fleeing the the advancing German troops. "In June 1953 Nabokov and his family went to Ashland, Oregon. There he finished Lolita and began writing the novel Pnin." I guess he's considered a Russian and American author? Still doesn't sound right, but I'm definitely not the one to ask.
- RobertKerans 11y agoAs @gizmo says, he's a weird case. He's one of the best prose stylists in English, his use of the language is incredible. But then at the same time he wrote his first 9 novels in Russian, and translated his own English works back into Russian, and into French. I'd classify a large chunk of his work as English literature, but I can't comment on how he's viewed in Russia, or for that matter in France, given several of his novels were written in the language then translated.