Paper outline and thesis

I plan to write my paper on the subject of Nabokov’s Zembla with regard to how it can be interpreted as an ultima thule. My thesis will be something to the effect of: “Zembla is an ultima thule because it is a northern land beyond the boundaries of the real world as well as a manifestation of V. Botkin’s unattainable goal.” This thesis will naturally yield a paper that is composed of two parts – one part discussing the more literal interpretation the ultima thule and the other part addressing the metaphorical significance of the ultima thule.

In the first section I will deal with some background information regarding the historical use of the term ultima thule in order to establish its connection to the concept of unknown northern lands. From here, I will be able to move on to a discussion of how the specifically northern aspect of the ultima thule relates to Zembla. I will also attempt to bring in some of the other texts from our class in this section, as several connect with the motif of the distant, mysterious north. For example, A.S. Byatt mentions in The Biographer’s Tale how Linnaeus would sometimes report having other-worldly experiences on his long journeys in the Lapland (a region in northern Scandanavia). Additionally, the characters Hilda in The Master Builder and Dr. Stockmann in An Enemy of the People both make their appearances in the plot after returning from a sort of exile in the north. References to these other literary works will hopefully augment my investigation into the importance of Zembla’s northern location.

I will begin the second section of the paper by discussing the Roman poet Virgil, who first used the ultima thule to symbolize an unattainable goal. I plan to connect this metaphorical significance to V. Botkin, the “American scholar of Russian descent” who entertains the impossible aspiration of making his life exciting and relevant. The means by which Botkin pursues this goal is to fabricate for himself an imaginary northern nation, Zembla, of which he (as Charles Kinbote) is the exiled king. I might also address the idea of exile as it relates to Zembla and the ultima thule, as the experience of exile can often lead to the generation of the perpetual, unfulfilled longing to return to one’s homeland. The fictional Kinbote seems to have such nostalgic, fantastically impossible feelings for his native land, and thus the concept of unattainable goals can be connected to Zembla on another level.

To tie everything together at the end of the paper, I will mention the index definition of Zembla (“a distant northern land”). Zembla’s description in the index is relevant because it relates to my two main points proving that Zembla is an ultima thule – the “northern land” is an obvious connection to the ultima thule’s unknown northern location, while “distant” can be applied to the concept of an unreachable goal.