Fictionality of Nabokov's Autobiography Speak,Memory

Abstract

This research attempts to prove that the work, Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited by Russian American writer Vladimir Nabokov straddles, both autobiography and fiction although it is especially an autobiography. It is written from the perspective of 'first person narrator, ‘I'. Nabokov presents his personal description through this work. He has also written about his family members and other factual historical events. In the same way, we can find fictional elements in his text on the ground of memory, forgetfulness, public and private memory, photographs used in the text and his description of ancestors. I have tried to show the interrelatedness by using the methodological tool from Gunnthorunn Gudmundsdottir's book Borderlines and Linda Anderson's book Autobiography, which deal with intersections of autobiography and fiction.