Why the Space of Self-Translation Matters: Nabokov, Identity, and Arizona

The year 1953 and, chiefly, his stay in Portal (Arizona), can be considered of crucial importance for Vladimir Nabokov. Here, not only he carried on his scientific research and his work on the final version of "Lolita" but, as Boyd reports, he also self-translated parts of his autobiographical memoir "Conclusive Evidence" into Russian (1991: 224). Interestingly, as Nabokov’s letters seem to suggest, the time dedicated to entomological explorations of the land had a meaningful impact on the time devoted to creative writing and self-translation. Thus, in light of the so-called “spatial turn” that has recently invested the field of Translation Studies, this contribution explores the role played by geographical space in shaping the practice of self-translation. More specifically, it investigates the intersection between space, self-translation, self-narration, and the creation of “a new self in a second language” (Evangelista 2013: 177-87). This contribution makes use of original, unpublished materials gathered during several field trips to Arizona.