The motifs of the arabesque in Pale Fire

This paper examines the decorative motifs of the arabesque, an Islamic art form, in Vladimir Nabokov’s (1899-1977) postmodern novel Pale Fire (1962). The arabesque integrates different shapes and patterns to produce a single ornament containing symmetric, repetitive and kaleidoscopic motifs. It also produces a single continuous line that interweaves the various elements into an unbounded unified whole. The first half of the paper outlines the development of the arabesque, the geometric logic of which has been derived by Islamic scholars from Euclid’s Elements of Geometry. It discusses how the geometric concepts of the arabesque contribute to Pale Fire’s symmetric structure as well as the significance of Islamic calligraphy in Arabic aesthetics, namely in the 1001 Arabian Nights tales. As the evolution of the arabesque into literary style was adopted by Nabokov as a postmodern aesthetic, the second half of this article notes the elements of the arabesque in Pale Fire which include symmetry, reflections, mirroring forms, kaleidoscopic effects, repetition, continuity, circulation and an unending structure. The incorporation of the decorative motifs of the arabesque therefore allows us to read and analyse Pale Fire as a literary arabesque.