Filmmaking devices in V. Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading [Priglashenie na kazn]

The topic of the cinematographic quality of Nabokov’s prose fascinated his contemporaries in the early days of filmmaking. His novel Invitation to a Beheading [Priglashenie na kazn] tells the story of Cincinnatus C., his incarceration, attempted breakout, and execution in a world devoid of independent thinkers. Through the use of various cinematic devices, Nabokov conjures up the kind of artistic reality filled with grotesque simulations of verisimilitude. This reality is a sham and lacks humanity, which, in Nabokov’s view, largely defines filmmaking. Cinematic techniques such as light, colour, sound, focus, and framing draw the reader deep into the Kafkaesque reality of the camera-protagonist a reality flanked by the mundane world behind the scenes. The study examines Nabokov’s method of using filmmaking devices that allows him to visualize an artistic world and, consequently, to expand the novel’s semantic and ideological implications.

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