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SIGHTING: Appreciation of VN's Gogol
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The Canon: Nikolai Gogol. By Vladimir Nabokov
18 February 2010
What a happy task to be asked to choose a definitive title from one's
"personal canon". I recommend Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol. Written in 1944, this
little book about the 19th-century Russian writer brims with inaccuracies,
gaping lacunae and strong opinions. Why is it important? How can it hold its
own against critical giants such as Michel Foucault, Wayne C. Booth, Jacques
Derrida or Judith Butler? Well, it can't - but reading it can introduce you
to your own sensibility. Moreover, the critical writings of poets and
fiction writers offer enticing simultaneous glimpses into their own creative
landscapes and those of their subjects - witness Henry James, T.S. Eliot, or
another strong contender on my bookshelf, W.H. Auden.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26
<http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=41
0399&c=2> &storycode=410399&c=2
David Powelstock
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