“This compelling collection offers fresh insights into Vladimir Nabokov’s life and artistic legacy.The editor’s essay draws on fascinating new archival information to illuminate Nabokov’s ties to Boston and environs, while the other wide-ranging essays showcase his brilliance as a literary innovator and cultural icon. Essential reading for scholars and admirers of Nabokov alike.”— Vladimir E. Alexandrov, B. E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus, Yale University, and author of To Break Russia’s Chains: Boris Savinkov and His Wars Against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks
“Nabokov on the Heights is a tribute both to Nabokov’s ability to engage a new generation of readers and to Maxim D. Shrayer’s skill in guiding them as they seek to convert their enthusiasm into meaningful scholarship. This volume celebrates Nabokov in Boston, encompassing his life in that city and readings of his work produced by former students and current colleagues of Shrayer at Boston College. The readings, thankfully, do not produce a unified interpretation of the writer, but they bear witness to a shared sense of scholarly community. There are already several books on teaching Nabokov, but this book is different, since it reflects and extends what has already happened in the classroom. A successful class is only the start of a continuing relationship with its teacher and its texts. By retrograde analysis, one can read Nabokov on the Heights to discover what can happen when one teaches Nabokov well.”
— Eric Naiman, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Nabokov, Perversely.
“In celebration of the role that the colleges and universities of Massachusetts played in the life and work of Vladimir Nabokov, the scholars of Boston College have located and filled in gaps in Nabokov studies, stimulating further thought and discussion.”
— Leona Toker, Professor Emerita, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the author of Nabokov: The Mystery of Literary Structures
Maxim D. Shrayer
Nabokov in Boston: A Photo Essay
Matthew Lyberg
Angst and Asymptote: The Success Motif in Nabokov’s Fiction
Eric Weiskott
Unlimited Time: Visual Art and Temporality in Vladimir Nabokov’s “La Veneziana” and “The Visit to the Museum”
Megumi DeMond
Marriage and Its Discontents: Infidelity and Unhappiness in Vladimir Nabokov's Life and Art
Ciara Spencer
Joyce’s L. Bloom to Nabokov’s Cincinnatus C.: The Influence of Joyce’s Ulysses on Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading
Nina Khaghany
“That Skip-Space Piece”: Positioning the Knight in Nabokov’s Poetics
Nick Adler
Sharing Other Worlds: Companionship and Coauthorship in The Gift and Glory
Fiona Steacy
Other (Dis)enchanted Motels: Nabokov’s Chronicles of Suburban America
Jared Hackworth
Questions of Style and Technique: Death and Immortality in the Work of Vladimir Nabokov
Katie Pelkey
Nabokov, the Poetics of Religious Conversion, and the Post-Shoah Reckoning
Maxim D. Shrayer
“She stands before me as a living child”: Aestheticism, Sentimentality, and Desire in Lolita
Kevin Ohi
Vladimir Nabokov and the Fruits of Fiction
Brendan McCourt
Negotiating Nabokov within America’s Political and Social Context
Samuel Peterson
Acknowledgments
Index of Names and Places
Contributors
“This compelling collection offers fresh insights into Vladimir Nabokov’s life and artistic legacy.The editor’s essay draws on fascinating new archival information to illuminate Nabokov’s ties to Boston and environs, while the other wide-ranging essays showcase his brilliance as a literary innovator and cultural icon. Essential reading for scholars and admirers of Nabokov alike.”— Vladimir E. Alexandrov, B. E. Bensinger Professor Emeritus, Yale University, and author of To Break Russia’s Chains: Boris Savinkov and His Wars Against the Tsar and the Bolsheviks
“Nabokov on the Heights is a tribute both to Nabokov’s ability to engage a new generation of readers and to Maxim D. Shrayer’s skill in guiding them as they seek to convert their enthusiasm into meaningful scholarship. This volume celebrates Nabokov in Boston, encompassing his life in that city and readings of his work produced by former students and current colleagues of Shrayer at Boston College. The readings, thankfully, do not produce a unified interpretation of the writer, but they bear witness to a shared sense of scholarly community. There are already several books on teaching Nabokov, but this book is different, since it reflects and extends what has already happened in the classroom. A successful class is only the start of a continuing relationship with its teacher and its texts. By retrograde analysis, one can read Nabokov on the Heights to discover what can happen when one teaches Nabokov well.”
— Eric Naiman, Professor, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Nabokov, Perversely.
“In celebration of the role that the colleges and universities of Massachusetts played in the life and work of Vladimir Nabokov, the scholars of Boston College have located and filled in gaps in Nabokov studies, stimulating further thought and discussion.”
— Leona Toker, Professor Emerita, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the author of Nabokov: The Mystery of Literary Structures
Maxim D. Shrayer
Nabokov in Boston: A Photo Essay
Matthew Lyberg
Angst and Asymptote: The Success Motif in Nabokov’s Fiction
Eric Weiskott
Unlimited Time: Visual Art and Temporality in Vladimir Nabokov’s “La Veneziana” and “The Visit to the Museum”
Megumi DeMond
Marriage and Its Discontents: Infidelity and Unhappiness in Vladimir Nabokov's Life and Art
Ciara Spencer
Joyce’s L. Bloom to Nabokov’s Cincinnatus C.: The Influence of Joyce’s Ulysses on Nabokov’s Invitation to a Beheading
Nina Khaghany
“That Skip-Space Piece”: Positioning the Knight in Nabokov’s Poetics
Nick Adler
Sharing Other Worlds: Companionship and Coauthorship in The Gift and Glory
Fiona Steacy
Other (Dis)enchanted Motels: Nabokov’s Chronicles of Suburban America
Jared Hackworth
Questions of Style and Technique: Death and Immortality in the Work of Vladimir Nabokov
Katie Pelkey
Nabokov, the Poetics of Religious Conversion, and the Post-Shoah Reckoning
Maxim D. Shrayer
“She stands before me as a living child”: Aestheticism, Sentimentality, and Desire in Lolita
Kevin Ohi
Vladimir Nabokov and the Fruits of Fiction
Brendan McCourt
Negotiating Nabokov within America’s Political and Social Context
Samuel Peterson
Acknowledgments
Index of Names and Places
Contributors