Playing with the Other: The Stories of Mu Xin and Vladimir Nabokov

This thesis studies the play of the Other in Vladimir Nabokov’s short story collection The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov and Mu Xin’s short story collection An Empty Room. Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory on the genealogy of morality provides a framework for the research. This thesis explores the two writer’s representation of the other time, the other space, and the self as another, and extends the analysis in the thematic contexts of exile and memory. Examining how Nabokov and Mu Xin cope with “differences” arising in human existence, this thesis argues that such differences are fundamental to their artistic creation. By accommodating the Other in their fictional writing, Nabokov and Mu Xin free the self from temporal, spatial and cultural constraints.

Name thesis:degree_name

MA

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Comparative Literature

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Wu, Meng

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mihăilescu, Călin-Andrei

• Mu Xin
• Vladimir Nabokov
• the Other
• short fiction
• On the Genealogy of Morality
• An Empty Room
• The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/30320

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/30320