English 383	David Walker
Spring 1999	Rice 24

VLADIMIR NABOKOV

--VN, January 1964

Required texts (all by Nabokov):

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov (Vintage)

Speak, Memory (Vintage)

The Defense (Vintage)

Despair (Vintage)

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (New Directions)

Lolita (Vintage)

Pnin (Vintage)

Pale Fire (Vintage)

Transparent Things (Vintage)

Course requirements: regular attendance and participation; five prep papers, due in class on any five Fridays of your choice (but I must receive at least two before spring break); a 3-4 page paper due March 15th; a longer paper (10-12 pages) due at the end of the semester. Please feel free to see me whenever you have questions or problems you'd like to talk about; my office is Rice 24 (x8584); office hours are MF 1:30-3:00, Th 1:30-3:30, and other times by appointment.

Preliminaries: This course is based on a close study of the fiction of the great Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov; as such, it will reflect both the advantages and potential pitfalls of any single-author course. On one hand, it will afford you the chance to get to know Nabokov's work in great detail, to study his development as a writer, to compare his treatment of the same issues and ideas in a variety of works. On the other hand, there's always the possibility you'll tire of his work; while there's no way to be certain, you should try to be sure you have the stamina and commitment to sustain a strong degree of interest over the course of the semester.

There are a couple of other issues I'd like you to consider carefully before deciding to take this class. The reading load is fairly heavy; I hope it won't feel unfair or burdensome, but it's crucial that you have the time to do all the reading carefully and thoughtfully. This is not a course for speed-readers; Nabokov's fiction demands close attention to its details, its textures and nuances. I would urge you not to take this class concurrently with another course in the novel. My teaching tends to be quite text-centered; you should bring the book under discussion to class every day and prepare to refer to it frequently. Nabokov's work inevitably raises theoretical questions about the nature and dynamics of fiction, and I will be asking you to do some reading in the criticism, but the bulk of our attention will be on the primary works themselves. Please be sure that's the sort of course you want to take.

I will expect active participation in discussion from each member of the class; this means, first of all, preparing carefully, noting issues in the day's reading that seem to you particularly worth talking about, marking passages that seem especially important or problematic, etc. (Nabokov told his own students they had to read everything twice before coming to class, but I'll settle for one thorough reading.) It also means listening and responding thoughtfully to each other in class, not just talking to hear yourself talk. Good discussion in a class this size doesn't usually happen naturally; it depends on a willingness to cultivate the skills required. I'd like this class to feel like a genuine community, and for each of you to be committed to bringing that about.

Prep papers, as the name suggests, are intended to help you prepare to make productive contributions to discussion by articulating some of your ideas and reactions to the assigned material in advance. You owe me five of them, due in class on any five Fridays of your choice (at least two of which must be before spring break). They should focus on the material to be discussed in class that day, not on material previously discussed. Prep papers should be between 300 and 500 words, typed, and while I don't expect the prose to be polished, I do expect you to have invested thought and imagination in them. Don't feel you need to generalize about the whole assignment: it's fine to isolate a particular issue or passage for scrutiny. I won't be grading the prep papers individually, but I plan to return them with brief comments, and then I'll ask you to turn all five back in at the end of the semester for a cumulative prep-paper grade.

Schedule:

M 2/8	Introduction
W 2/10	Stories: "Christmas" (1924, p. 131), "The Return of Chorb" (1925, p. 147), "Terror" (1926, p. 173)
F 2/12	Speak, Memory (1951/revised 1966), Foreword and chs. 1-3
M 2/15	Speak, Memory, chs. 4-8
W 2/17	chs. 9-12
F 2/19	chs. 13-15
M 2/22	The Defense (published 1930/translated 1964), chs. 1-5
W 2/24	chs. 6-10
F 2/26	chs. 11-14
M 3/1	Despair (1936/1966), chs. 1-4
W 3/3	chs. 5-8
F 3/5	chs. 9-11
M 3/8	The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941), chs. 1-7
W 3/10	chs. 8-14
F 3/12	chs. 15-20
M 3/15	SHORT PAPER DUE Stories: "A Guide to Berlin" (1925, p. 155), "Torpid Smoke" (1935, p. 396), "Recruiting" (1935, p. 401)
W 3/17	"Terra Incognita" (1931, p. 297), "The Visit to the Museum" (1938, p. 277), "Cloud, Castle, Lake" (1937, p. 430)
F 3/19	"The Potato Elf" (1924, p. 228), "The Aurelian" (1930, p. 248)
	Spring Break 3/20-28
M 3/29	"'That in Aleppo OnceÉ'" (1943, p. 560), "Signs and Symbols" (1947, p. 598)
W 3/31	"The Circle" (1934, p. 375), "Spring in Fialta" (1936, p. 413)
F 4/2	"The Vane Sisters" (1951, p. 619), "Lance" (1951, p. 632)
M 4/5	Lolita (1955), Foreword through chs. 14
W 4/7	chs. 15-33
F 4/9	Part Two, chs. 1-13
M 4/12	chs. 14-26
W 4/14	chs. 27-36
F 4/16	Final discussion of Lolita
M 4/19	Pnin (1957), chs. 1-3
W 4/21	chs. 4-5
F 4/23	chs. 6-7
M 4/26	Pale Fire (1962), through p. 69
W 4/28	pp. 73-136
F 4/30	pp. 137-95
M 5/3	pp. 195-254
W 5/5	pp. 254-315
F 5/7	Final discussion of Pale Fire
M 5/10	Transparent Things (1972), chs. 1-10
W 5/12	chs. 11-17
F 5/14	chs. 18-26
Tu 5/18	FINAL PAPER DUE