Nabokov and Metapsychology

Abstract

This essay offers a way of thinking beyond Nabokov's antagonism towards Freud by casting him as a self-ironising Freudian. Rather than just parodying Freud in his work, I argue that Nabokov practices an innately provisional form of psychology widely known in mid-twentieth century America as 'metapsychology.' I understand Nabokov to follow Edward Wilson's example in proposing Freudian analyses non-committally and playfully, while also encouraging him to be more skeptical. Nabokov's own mode of psychoanalytic thinking includes his skepticism about Freud by insisting on its own fictitiousness.