This work examines the use of ambiguous or obfuscating narrative devices in 3
works by 20th century Russian authors: A Dead Man’s Memoir, by Mikhail Bulgakov, The
Eye by Vladimir Nabokov, and You and I, by Abram Tertz. Bulgakov relies on diabolical
imagery as well as characters that are by and large caricatures of how any decent person
would behave. Nabokov employs several modernist tropes including skillful use of
estrangement, as well as a bland tone towards occurrences that ordinary people would find
miraculous. Tertz plays on the notion of a double identity by psychically linking two polar
extremes until they are nearly unable to tell themselves apart from one another, causing one
to crack and kill himself, thus restoring his observer to a more enlightened state. Each
work uses the idea of narrative ambiguity and unreliability to demonstrate the
incommunicability of one’s artistic vision in its purest, platonic form.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uoregon.edu/oai:scholarsbank.uoregon.edu:1794/12432 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Butler, Michael, Butler, Michael |
| Contributors | Presto, Jenifer |
| Publisher | University of Oregon |
| Source Sets | University of Oregon |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Rights | All Rights Reserved. |
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