The Writing of Imagination: Analysis of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Terra Incognita” and Invitation to a Beheading

Abstract: Scholars have especially studied the relationship between Vladimir Nabokov and cinema at the sociological, economic, and existential levels. However, the impact of cinema on Nabokov runs much deeper and is rooted in cinematic language. As a curious and eclectic writer, Nabokov realized the novelty brought about by cinema, treasuring its ability to express the relationship between the individual and the world, and between so-called “reality” and “imagination.” By analyzing the short story, “Terra Incognita” (1931), and the novel, Invitation to a Beheading ( Prisglashenie na kazn’ , 1934), this essay shows how adapting cinematic devices to narration (e.g. montage, dissolve, multiple exposure, and stop-motion) allows Nabokov to tell stories through visual associations that go beyond the mechanic reproduction of existence. The adaptation of cinematic tools to literary language enables Nabokov to convey the fluidity of human experience and the inner workings of consciousness related to his ideas on the interconnection between so-called “reality” and “imagination.”