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&storycode=410399&c=2
David Powelstock