Synaesthesia in fiction

‘Time-twisted space’: an exploration of the synaesthetic continuum through the work of Vladimir Nabokov

“…Although synaesthesia is of course a neurological condition, given its extensive impact on the creative output of synaesthetic authors and artists throughout history it seems logical to use literature as a tool for its investigation. Whilst the two have been considered in tandem (Duffy 2013; Duffy and Simner 2010), explorations of literature through the lens of specifically neurological synaesthesia are uncommon. In addition, where studies on perception in literature often focus attention on modernist authors such as Virginia Woolf (Whitworth 2001), Nabokov – a lingerer on the borders of modernism – is a less commonly approached subject.…”