''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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the Dark Comedies of the Twentieth Century, the Absurd
Plays, to which particularly Invitation to a Bedeading
bears a striking resemblance, both in individual scenes
and in the general tone. Here and there, and partly
in Bend Sinister, the most depressing truths about man,
human society, and life, the most disquieting problems,
and the most shattering experiences man can have, are
expressed in comic terms and with the help of comic
devices, and in each case the effect of this blatant
incongruity is very disturbing.
One of the most painful scenes from Bend Sinister,
which may stand as a first example, is that which
gradually brings home to Krug' what has happened to his
little boy. Naboköv, who never allows himself to miss
a single chance of ridiculing modern psychological
experiments,, [holds] up a glass in which [their]
worst potentialities are seen realized"8 by giving a
parodistic account of one - the most gruesome one
imaginable
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in which a child is used as a "release-
instrument" for children with criminal records (BS,
195ff. ). This account is clothed in a curious mixture
of pseudo-scientific terminology, which includes the
astonishing "pure 'egg' (common extract of egos)"
(BS, 196-197), and completely inappropriate language,
which of course has a comic effect.
Moreover, the scene in which Krug is shown parts
of the film about the experiment is a perfectly comic
one. The whole staff of the institute are in such a
state of panic that the director loses his command
of language, which gives the author an opportunity of