Narratives of Nothing in 20th-Century Literature

The concept of nothing was an enduring concern of the 20th century. As Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre each positioned nothing as inseparable from the human condition and essential to the creation or operation of human existence, as Jacques Derrida demonstrated how all structures are built upon a nothing within the structure, and as mathematicians argued that zero - the number that is also not a number - allows for the creation of our modern mathematical system, Narratives of Nothing in 20th-Century Literature suggests that nothing itself enables the act of narration. Focusing on the literary works of Vladimir Nabokov, Samuel Beckett, and Victor Pelevin, Meghan Vicks traces how and why these writers give narrative form to nothing, demonstrating that nothing is essential to the creation of narrative - that is, how our perceptions are conditioned, how we make meaning (or madness) out of the stuff of our existence, how we craft our knowable selves, and how we exist in language. Vicks has chosen a remarkable topic, one which is paradoxically brilliant, obvious, and understudied: nothing. What Vicks identifies as 'narratives of nothing' intrinsically presents epistemological and interpretive challenges: narration would seem to be 'about something' by definition. Yet Vicks shows just how much of a something 'nothing' has been for modern literature. By combining the usual suspects (Beckett, Sartre, Derrida, Kristeva) with key Russian figures (Gogol, Nabokov, and Pelevin), Vicks demonstrates not only for the centrality of 'nothing' as a Russian transcendental signifier over time, but also the centrality of Russia for the construction of 'nothing.' * Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University, USA * Meghan Vicks situates three of the most innovative, controversial and influential figures of twentieth-century literature at the heart of her investigation of 'nothingness' in Western culture and thought. Through her insightful comparison of key texts, she casts new light on the work of Nabokov, Beckett and Pelevin, whilst establishing the 'void' as a critical element in their explorations of the human predicament. * Barbara Wyllie, University College London, UK, and author of Nabokov at the Movies and Vladimir Nabokov (Critical Lives) * In this well-written, deeply theorized study of the concept of nothing and its importance for fiction, Vicks (Germanic and Slavic languages, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) traces the significance of nothingness through a multifaceted, interdisciplinary account that ranges from philosophy and mathematics to psychology and narrative theory. ... Vicks presents a rejection of nihilism in favor of deeply humanist readings, making this a rewarding journey through key texts and ideas of the 20th century. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. * CHOICE *

Acknowledgments Chapter Zero: Introduction: Nothing and the Twentieth Century Odysseus : Outis Khora : Socrates : Knowing Nothing Much Ado About Nothing Narratives of Nothing Chapter One: Theorizing Nothing Zero Nothing and Being: Heidegger and Sartre Nothing and Narrative: Nietzsche, Derrida, Bakhtin, and Kristeva Chapter Two: Akaky Akakievich and Bartleby Akaky Akakievich Bartleby Chapter Three: "Working in a Void": Vladimir Nabokov and the Semiotics of Nothing Muzhiks Working in a Void The Otherworld and Loss The Real Life of Sebastian Knight: Reality as Nothing and the Aesthetics of Failure "Signs and Symbols": Patterning and Nothing Chapter Four: Samuel Beckett: Immanence, Language, Nothing Nothing happens, more than once Critical Approaches to Beckett and Nothing Aesthetics of Lessness Beckettian Immanence Molloy: Questing Immanence Aesthetics of Immanent Nothing Chapter Five: Victor Pelevin's Void and the Post-Soviet Condition Pelevin's Postmodernism Engineering the Human Soul Pelevin's Divine Absurdity: The Void Nihilistic Nothing in Generation "P" Sacred Nothing in Chapaev and Void and The Sacred Book of the Werewolf Conclusion: Nothing as the Transcendental Signified Bibliography Index