Nabokov and “The Luzhin Defense”: playing life with chess pieces

One of the most original voices of Russian immigrant literature, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov composed “The Luzhin Defence” and in this Russian novel, the real and metaphysical life, genius and insanity, game and player encounter as on a chess plane. For Nabokov chess is a world apart from a mind game with rigid rules and unlimited possibilities of moves. The protagonist Luzhin, is totally closed to the outside world and faces inward. He frees up his inner world of moves he made in chess, and by this way, he accomplishes restlessness, oppression in own family and difficulty of life. In this wise, while in the abstract world he can control his own truth, he is completely defenseless in normal life, which is regarded as a dream. This paper aims to make an overall assessment on place the novel “The Luzhin Defence” in Russian immigrant literature and Nabokov’s perspective in game, music, abstract and concrete world, human nature and psychological death concepts