The Translators Doubts : Vladimir Nabokov and the Ambiguity of Translation Using Vladimir Nabokov as its case study  this volume approaches translation as a crucial avenue into literary history and theory philosophy and interpretation. It attempts to bring together issues in translation and the shift in Nabokov studies from its earlier emphasis on the metaliterary to the more recent metaphysical approach. Addressing specific texts (both literary and cinematic) the book investigates Nabokovs deeply ambivalent relationship to translation as a hermeneutic oscillation on his part between the relative stability of meaning which expresses itself philosophically as a faith in the beyond and deep metaphysical uncertainty. While Nabokovs practice of translation changed profoundly over the course of his career his adherence to the Romantic notion of a true but ultimately elusive metaphysical language remained paradoxically constant