Author(s)

Nina Shcherbak

Corresponding Author

Nina Shcherbak

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the article was to analyze the English novel Ada wrote by Vladimir Nabokov in the spectrum of problems of trans-generational injury, defined for the writer's work as the most common, collective form of injury, which has not only trans-generation characteristics, but a common, in some sense, defining trauma, designated as “original sin”, that is, it actually includes all the sins of mankind. The novel Ada or Ardor, a family chronicle (“Ada or Joy of Passion” in S. Ilyin's Russian translation), thus, has become a peculiar form of Biblical narration. The storyline, the form of construction, the creation of a new language is, in some ways, a model of a family in human history: the ways of realization are a major feature of postmodern literature. An interesting point is the combination of psychoanalytic concepts and the work of Nabokov, who strongly rejected Freud's teachings. One of the outcomes of the research was the discussion of the interaction between religious practices and psychoanalytic experience, which aimed at eliminating mental and spiritual inconsistencies, with an attempt to purify, create, and develop personality.

KEYWORDS

Narrative, anti-narrative practices, the transcendental, trans-generational trauma