Self-translation as a Ghost Story: Vladimir Nabokov’s The Eye
Journal: Przekładaniec
Year: 2019

Nabokov's novella The Eye is usually read as a story in which the narrator tries to use his failed suicide attempt to announce his own death and assume the role of an observer, who, as it turns out in the end, is merely watching over his own (alienated) figure. The ending seems to project a reintegration of the self. In this essay, the process of Nabokov's translation of the novella into English is seen as connected with the spectral elements of the story, proposing a new reading embedded into t