Abstract: Highly acclaimed for his writing art, Vladimir Nabokov’s Speak, Memory is experimental and avant-garde amongst contemporary autobiography. This paper analyses features of Nabokov’s memory writing from the vantage point of art of writing. On the one hand, Nabokov employs such artistic devices as rehearsals and character metonymy to organize memory and undermine conflicts and emotions, thus manifesting the constructive features of memory. On the other hand, he attempts to establish the “theme” and “pattern” to define an individual’s fate. The “theme” undermines the traditional ethical connotations and reflects the constructive feature of meaning. This paper intends to analyze the rational kernel under the artistic shell from the artistry of memory writing.

Key words: Speak, Memory; construct; artistic; rational kernel

Hou Wanling is a graduate student of World Literature and Comparative Literature at Yangzhou University., China.