Fictional Paratext in V. Nabokov's "Pale Fire" and D.F. Wallace's "Infinite Jest"

Student: Bagaturiia Diana

Supervisor: Elena Ostrovskaya

Educational Programme: Comparative Studies: Russian Literature in Cross-cultural Perspective (Master)

Year of Graduation: 2019

The aim of the MA thesis is to study the ways in which fictional paratext operates in Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire and D. F. Wallace’s Infinite Jest. The thesis establishes a connection between these writers and such authors as Jorge Luis Borges and William H. Gass, who experimented with paratextual elements a lot. Borges and Gass influenced significantly Nabokov and Wallace’s literary styles as well as their understanding of paratext as a literary and compositional device. In the novels fictional paratext plays the key role in terms of story building as well as how the text interacts with the reader. The thesis also focuses on the ways in which fictional paratext determines the reader’s expectations from paratext itself, how it determines reading experience, and makes different reading practices.

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