Development of Genre Criticism and Narrative Theory Since the 20th Century Based Upon the Functions of Imagination

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23520285
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
• Principal Investigator: SUZUKI Akira 東京外国語大学, 大学院総合国際学研究院, 教授 (80154516)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 物語言説 / ジャンル / 虚構テクスト / 想像力理論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

One of the actual achievements of this project was to outline the basic methodology for studying Vladimir Nabokov’s novels in total. Practically speaking, this type of approach, which nowadays is often undervalued and even considered to be out-of-date, can only be substantialised by the simplest act of reading individual works and writing essays treating them one by one, the example of which being the self-imposed mission for the principal investigator (Suzuki) during the past nine or ten years.
In fact, thoughtful analyses of details with view of completeness are essentially requisite for self-consciously constructed artefacts such as Nabokov’s oeuvre, and this kind of duality we need must be interpreted as reflecting multiple forms of duality found in Nabokovean texts themselves.

Free Research Field

英米・英語圏文学