«Otsebjatina»: come Nabokov riscrive Tolstoj

Abstract

Young Nabokov, during his Berlin emigration, writes a text titled Rech’ Pozdnyshev (Pozdnyshev’s Speech, 1926), a short work that originates from Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata and is intended to be declaimed before an audience of Russian emigrants. In letters to his wife Vera in June and July 1926, Nabokov mentions the work in progress and then the final result. His statements – about rereading Tolstoy, his impressions, the reaction of the audience gathered in Berlin to attend the recitation of Pozdnyshev’s Speech – constitute in the present work a starting point for developing a comparative analysis between the two texts, Tolstoy’s and Nabokov’s, with the aim of bringing out thematic and stylistic similarities and differences, and reflecting on the value of both. What emerges is that this work, born as a playful exercise and with an ending opposite to Tolstoy’s, fits fully into Nabokov’s «unique text».