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    • Abbreviated Title: Int. J. Lang. Lit. Linguist.
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    • DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL
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HOME > Archives > 2024 > Volume 10 Number 6 (2024) >
IJLLL 2024 Vol.10(6): 436-442
DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL.2024.10.6.557

How to Read and Teach Literature: Vladimir Nabokov’s Methods and Inspirations

Xiaoxiao Xu
Humanities Department, The Open University of China, Beijing, China
Email: xuxx@ouchn.edu.cn (X.X.X.)

Manuscript received March 21, 2024; revised April 23, 2024; accepted June 24, 2024; published November 25, 2024.

Abstract—The significance of Vladimir Nabokov is not only reflected in his literary creation, but also in his literary criticism. Before gaining a global reputation for Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov was a diligent writer and literary connoisseur, as well as a passionate and respected teacher. His Lectures on Literature and Lectures on Russian Literature have been published for over 40 years and still have wide readership around the world. Their inherent and universal significance are worthy of further exploration and interpretation. These lectures were not academic articles but lesson preparation materials which preserved classroom form. Nabokov’s teaching career in the United States began in 1941 when he taught creative writing (playwriting) in a summer class at Stanford University. Later, he taught European and Russian literary classics at Wellesley College and Cornell University. His reading method was not very consistent with the Practical Criticism in the U.K. or the New Criticism in the U.S., but was closer to what later became known as creative reading in the field of creative writing. He taught students specific approaches such as structural decomposition, discussion of plot setting, fondling details, rhetorical analysis, and thematic criticism to grasp the prominent elements of author’s style and the aesthetic of masterpieces. His reread method, caring for communicating with audiences, and emphasis on sharing informed experience in teaching still have enlightening significance to this day.

Keywords—Vladimir Nabokov, lectures on literature, novel reading, teaching literature

Cite: Xiaoxiao Xu, "How to Read and Teach Literature: Vladimir Nabokov’s Methods and Inspirations," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, vol. 10, no. 6, pp. 436-442, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

 

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