The theory of synesthesia according to the Pythagorean tradition and Nabokov’s revisiting of Pythagorean synesthesia
-
Yona Dureau
Abstract
In Ancient times, synesthesia was a form of perception sought after, as developed both by Pythagoras and by Aristotle. It was a degree of perception sought after for the perception of the divine. It was part of a definite aesthetics because art was supposed to permit access to synesthesia through very precise rules defined by Aristotle in his Rhetoric. Synesthesia was not an anomalous form of perception experienced by some writers only. It was supposed to be induced by certain masterpieces, thus connecting the reader’s experience of synesthesia with the writer’s. The hypothesis of the present paper is that Nabokov knew those theories and that his knowledge of Ancient sources was not limited to Plato whom he quotes repeatedly in his interviews, but also comprised Aristotle. Not only did Nabokov know about that theory, some interviews, and some of his novels reveal a game with those sources and a quest for the reader’s synesthesia. The present article focuses on the two first pages of The Gift as a skillful implementation of Aristotle’s theory on synesthesia.
References
Aristotle. 1931. De Anima, II, 420 a and b, J. A. Smith (trans.). In W. D. Rose (ed.), The works of Aristotle translated into English, Vol. 3, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Search in Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1984. The rhetoric, W. Rhys Roberts (trans.). New York: Random House.Search in Google Scholar
Aristotle. 1986. De anima, Hugh Lawson-Tancred (trans.). London: Penguin.Search in Google Scholar
Arsitotle. 1998. The Nichomean ethics, J. L. Ackrill & J. O. Urmson (ed.), David Ross (trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Bader, Julia. 1972. Crystal land: Artifice in Nabokov’s English novels. Berkeley: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520316546Search in Google Scholar
Ferwerda, R. & P. Struycken. 2001. “Aristoteles” over kleuren, [“Aristotle” on colors]. Budel: Damon.Search in Google Scholar
Gage, J. 1993. Color and culture: Practice and meaning from antiquity to abstraction. London: Thames & Hudson.Search in Google Scholar
Hall, Manly. 1928. Secret teachings of all ages. San Francisco: H. S. Crocker.Search in Google Scholar
Ione, A. & C. Tyler. 2004. Synesthesia: Is F-sharp colored violet? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 13. 58–65.10.1080/09647040490885493Search in Google Scholar
Karlinsky, Simon. 1985. Dar. L’Arc 99. 46–54.Search in Google Scholar
Nabokov, Vladimir. 1963. The gift. New York: Putnam.Search in Google Scholar
Nabokov, Vladimir. 1983. Lectures on literature, F. Bowers (ed.). London: Pan.Search in Google Scholar
Nabokov, Vladimir. 1990. Strong opinions. New York: Vintage.Search in Google Scholar
Wood, Michael. 1994. The magician doubts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Spontaneous emergence of language-like and music-like vocalizations from an artificial protolanguage
- A sociological analysis of moves in the formation of Iranian epitaphs
- Sign systems: The dawn of earliest mankind
- L’ambigüité structurale et l’acquisition des compétences linguistiques en français en passant par la langue maternelle
- The corporeal meaning of language: A semiotic approach to musical glossolalia
- Bringing back the image into its frame: Barthes’ soldier and the contextual frame of human perception and interpretation of signs
- Context-based analysis of an advertising poster
- Semiotic approaches to “traditional music”, musical/poetic structures, and ethnographic research
- The theory of synesthesia according to the Pythagorean tradition and Nabokov’s revisiting of Pythagorean synesthesia
- “Do you understand these charges?”: How procedural communication in youth criminal justice court violates the rights of young offenders in Canada
- Between the institution and the individual: What walking in a place that includes institutional heritage discloses
- Finite semiotics: Cognitive sets, semiotic vectors, and semiosic oscillation
- The “Fiat 500L” commercial: A journey into Italian style
- Epiepistemology/neuro-semantic programming
- Diagrams and mental figuration: A semio-cognitive analysis
- Perelman’s phenomenology of rhetoric: Foucault contests Chomsky’s complaint about media communicology in the age of Trump polemic
- Semiotic and discursive consequences of the cybertextual condition: The case of tragedy
- Signizing: The root of the functions of the intentional sign
- Review Article
- Vital signs: The Darwinian semiotics of beauty in the animal and human worlds
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Spontaneous emergence of language-like and music-like vocalizations from an artificial protolanguage
- A sociological analysis of moves in the formation of Iranian epitaphs
- Sign systems: The dawn of earliest mankind
- L’ambigüité structurale et l’acquisition des compétences linguistiques en français en passant par la langue maternelle
- The corporeal meaning of language: A semiotic approach to musical glossolalia
- Bringing back the image into its frame: Barthes’ soldier and the contextual frame of human perception and interpretation of signs
- Context-based analysis of an advertising poster
- Semiotic approaches to “traditional music”, musical/poetic structures, and ethnographic research
- The theory of synesthesia according to the Pythagorean tradition and Nabokov’s revisiting of Pythagorean synesthesia
- “Do you understand these charges?”: How procedural communication in youth criminal justice court violates the rights of young offenders in Canada
- Between the institution and the individual: What walking in a place that includes institutional heritage discloses
- Finite semiotics: Cognitive sets, semiotic vectors, and semiosic oscillation
- The “Fiat 500L” commercial: A journey into Italian style
- Epiepistemology/neuro-semantic programming
- Diagrams and mental figuration: A semio-cognitive analysis
- Perelman’s phenomenology of rhetoric: Foucault contests Chomsky’s complaint about media communicology in the age of Trump polemic
- Semiotic and discursive consequences of the cybertextual condition: The case of tragedy
- Signizing: The root of the functions of the intentional sign
- Review Article
- Vital signs: The Darwinian semiotics of beauty in the animal and human worlds
