Libraries as described by poet Paul Engle are sometimes repositories of dynamite, sometimes of comfort.
Tag Archives: Vladimir Nabokov
The Dangerous Power of Libraries
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Library", Anna Karenina, C. S. Lewis, Grand Canyon, Julius Caesar, Leo Tolstoy, libraries, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lolita, Louisa May Alcott, Merchant of Venice, Paul Hamilton Engle, Tempest, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Russia Has Always Hated Ukrainian Lit
Russia has long sought to impose its language on its neighbors, sometimes even outlawing their indigenous lit.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged cultural genocide, Frantz Fanon, liberation movements, Taras Shevchenko, Wretched of the Earth Comments closed
Tennis Fiction and Osaka’s Brilliance
Literary fiction that mentions tennis can raise our appreciation of the game, including the play of figures like Naomi Osaka. Nabokov, Roth, and Wallace have all written about tennis.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged David Foster Wallace, Goodbye Columbus, Infinite Jest, Lolita, Naomi Osaka, Philip Roth, tennis Comments closed
Is Sexist Lit Gaslighting Women?
A Guardian article argues that critical praise for sexist male authors valorizes patriarchal attitudes.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charlotte Bronte, Donald Trump, Ernest Hemingway, Feminism, Hillary Clinton, Human Stain, Jane Eyre, Lolita, MeToo, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Sexism Comments closed
Roy Moore’s Obsession with Lolitas
To understand Judge Roy Moore’s predilection for teenage girls, read “Lolita.” Like Humbert Humbert, Moore is obsessed with purity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Fundamentalism, Lolita, pedophilia, Roy Moore, white Christian evangelicals Comments closed
Trapped in an Emergency Room
When a friend found herself suddenly trapped in a large metropolitan emergency room, Nabokov’s short story “Cloud, Castle, Lake” came to mind. It’s about a man who wants to leave travel tour and is prevented.
Reading Lit To Find the Meaning of Life
Paul Kalinithi moves between neuroscience and literature as he tries to understand the meaning of life and death, including his own terminal disease.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Joseph Conrad, meaning of life, Paul Kalinithi, T. S. Eliot, Waste Land, When Breath Becomes Air Comments closed
Invisible Man & Lolita Changed the ’50s
Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and Nabokov’s “Lolita” both challenged basic 1950s assumptions. The former changed public perceptions on what it meant to be black while the latter violated a tacit agreement not to go digging under neatly manicured lawns bordered by white picket fences.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1950s, aestheticism, formalism, Hans Robert Jauss, horizon of expectations, Invisible Man, Lolita, modernism, Ralph Ellison, reception theory, Richard Wright, social protest novel Comments closed
How Is Lit Useful? Let Me Count the Ways
A recent issue of “New Literary History” explores a number of ways that literature is useful.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, Hard Times, Literary Theory, Lolita, reader response, utilitarianism Comments closed
