The Research On Nabokov's Lectures On Literature

Russian—born American writer Vladimir Nabokov(1899—1977) is a very important litterateur in the 20th century. He taught at many American universities and left a number of Lectures on Literature. From then on, literati paid more attention to his Literary Creation, but the less attention of literary study. In this dissertation, we mainly focus on his three notes---- Lectures on Literature,Russian Lectures on literature,Don Quixote Note (collectively " Lectures on Literature") and makes a thorough review of his View of Literature.In Chapter I, The thesis introduces the essential information about " Lectures on Literature ",the current research situation both at home and abroad,the purpose of this thesis and the design of this thesis.Chapter II deals with the essence of literature of Nabokov:Fiction. Nabokov regards fiction as the essence of literature. He stands in positive position on the issue of fiction. Firstly, fiction means the reality of personal world. Secondly, fiction will destroy the false world and restore the real world. Thirdly, fiction is an important way of approaching Truth, and it is a creation by imitating the nature. Literary fiction is not departing from the truth, it is, instead, the expression of the truth. Fiction means the truth. Nabokov thinks that functionality of literature covers three aspects:First, literature is original with the writer. Second, literature is deceptive. Third, the soul of literature is beauty.Chapter III expounds on Nabokov's opinion on writers. He holds that writer is a triune magician. In his opinion, Writer's creativity is best embodied by his or her inspiration, and the writer can control the inspiration consciously. Inspiration can form the poetic combination which will transcends time and space. In his opinion, a good writer's identity is a combination of artist,preacher,and storyteller, with artist being the core. Nabokov considers the style of the writer is both the sum of works in Artistic Skills and a constituent part of their personality. Artistic creations is their life.ChapterlV is about the Appreciation of Literature in Nabokov's opinion:Reading with tzk. Nabokov thinks that the productive reading is the ideal form in reading, which means the reader would unleash his or her creativity as the writer would in the course of reading and approaching the writer's intent actively. This process encompasses two steps: First is to read repeatedly and convert time arts into space arts and return to poetic combination in writer's inspiration. Second is to feel Aesthetic Bliss.Chapter V expounds on Nabokov's opinion on literature and morality. He holds that curiosity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy are the four components in literature and morality. Nabokov is not a cold formalist, but a writer who has moral feelings. He esteems that morality is not abstract sermon or philosophy thought, but intuitions about beauty and kindness, which directly rejects the philistinism and cruelty in Literary activities.Epilogue:at present, as Literature Criticism being increasingly far away from literature, writer criticism provides many important ideas and methods for us to know literature again. Valuing and studying writer criticism is not only good for benign development of literature but also positive in improving the geography of Literature Criticism.