Berliński kod architektoniczny w twórczości emigracyjnej Vladimira Nabokova

In 1921-1923 Berlin was a centre of Russian emigration. Many poets and writers from Russia, like Maksim Gorki, Aleksy Remizow, Andriej Bieły, Ilja Erenburg, Aleksy Tołstoj, Władysław Chodasiewicz, Borys Pasternak, and for a short time also Marina Cwietajewa and Siergiej Jesienin, connected their life with this city. It was just in Berlin where was working one of the most interesting and the most intriguing writer of XX century (1922-1937) - Vladimir Nabokov. These period was characterized for him not only by happy moments (first love, marriage, birth of son), but also by tragic ones (death offather). His stay in Berlin marked out really important stage in creativity of Nabokov. It was theplace of his debut in the pages of Berlin’s newspaper “Руль” in 1921, in which he published his first poems under the pseudonym Sirin. In Berlin Nabokov wrote his first story and first novel. Itwas where he achieved his fame and formed his unique style of writing. Nabokov’s emigrant prose from 20’s constitutes an extraordinary guidebook to Berlin. In his art pieces he recreated the topography of Berlin by using architectural codes. Most often he related the code of home to a closed, domestic and peaceful circle. It is a circle tight in the meaning of space, but profound in the meaning of sensations. The lack of real home was a reason to lookingfor surrogate and it effected disorientation in the world in which poet had no place. The city hasa role of open, then foreign and hostile space. Here for the most part we can see the code in the shape of street or houses in city. This kind of code used by Nabokov, but also by other emigrantpoets, creates a feeling of disharmony, artificiality and unnaturalness.