The one and the many : Nabokovian and Borgesian recounting of the double

Abstract

This dissertation analyses the innovative uses of the motif of the double in the works of Vladimir Nabokov and Jorge Luis Borges. It claims that both writers move away from the traditional twofold nature of the device and instead regenerate it by focusing on the one and the many. This reinterpretation of the numerical issues of the motif is defined as a 'recounting' of the double. The Introduction posits Nabokov and Borges as writers who, despite originating outside the Anglo-American literary tradition, ultimately claim an important role in it. Chapter 1 focuses on a number of issues related to the conventions of the double in literature that are particularly relevant to this study. This allows the rest of the dissertation to explicate how Nabokov's and Borges's handling of the motif is innovative. Chapter 2 outlines the importance of the double in Nabokov and argues that Nabokov critiques the perception of others as doubles as a sign of the inability to see the otherness of the other. In Chapter 3, four novels by Nabokov are utilised in order to demonstrate that Nabokov rejects the dualism of the device and its connotations of sameness. Instead, he often focuses on the oneness of individuality and the plurality of different unique individuals by subjecting the motif to a parodic 'use and abuse'. Chapter 4 introduces the use of the double and doubling in Borges's texts and shows how the motif is related to Borges's metaphysically tinged considerations about the one, the many and their interrelation. In Chapter 5, a series of short tales, essays and poems are discussed in order to demonstrate how Borges refutes the conventional dualism of the device and how he uses the double to explore the idea that one entity in the universe may be the double of innumerable similar entities. This chapter shows that Borges's use of the device often leads to the problematisation of concepts such as linear time, the uniqueness of individuals and originality in literature. In the Conclusion, Borges's and Nabokov's different approaches to the double are compared and contrasted. It is claimed that the two writers 'recount' the motif in ways which undermine the belief that the double can no longer be used creatively. Finally, Borges's contribution to the motif is presented as going beyond Nabokov's. Nabokov uses the motif in order to refute its implications and thus emphasise the one and the many while Borges rewrites the motif itself in terms of the one and the many thus extending the definition of the technique.