The Dual Projection of Repression and Fear of Death: The Study of The Vane Sisters from the Perspective of Freud's Psychoanalysis 

Xiao Meng

School of English, Xi'an International Studies University，Xi'an, Shaanxi Province，710100;

Abstract: Vladimir Nabokov was a highly influential Russian American writer of the 20th century, renowned for his exquisite language skills, complex narrative structures, psychological descriptions, and unique explorations of themes such as identity, death, and hallucinations. The Vane Sisters was one of his short stories which was composed in 1951, containing a large number of delicate images and ending with a unique hidden poem. This short story was discussed in the first person, telling the experience of his association with the Vane sisters, especially the close communication with Cynthia, and the mysterious implications brought by the death of the two girls. The narrator seems calm, self-controlled, rational and objective, but in fact, it is his psychological defense driven by the fear of death. He responds to the fear of death through repression and projection. This article attempts to explore from the perspective of Freud’s psychoanalysis that how repression and fear of death profoundly influence the narrative behavior, the psychology of narrator and image construction. The narrator presents a subtle tug between reason and fear of death, consciousness and unconsciousness through narrative defense and subconscious projection, which not only explains the atmosphere of strange and uneasy, but also reveals the intervention of death theme on narrative structure. By combining psychoanalytic theory with close reading of texts, the interpretation ways of Nabokov’s work can be expanded, enriching the understanding of the narrator's psychological structure and the image in the text.

Keywords: The Vane Sisters; Vladimir Nabokov; Freud; Psychoanalysis

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