Nabokov: Providing a Flood and Lifeboat In Nabokov’s 1948 “Good Readers and Good Writers,” the reader has the opportunity to view the possibilities of a beautiful collision of a major reader and a major writer. This piece discusses reading and writing: skills that have become standardized and slightly devalued as education has advanced. Literacy has become so expected that little thought is put into what defines a good reader or writer; Nabokov tackles this idea head on. Nabokov’s intention
Effectiveness of Stylistics on the Reader Stylistics are used in writing to set various pieces of literature apart, while also determining the effectiveness said literature has on the reader. The novels Such is My Beloved and By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept both involve the concepts of sex and religion, but are each enjoyed by different groups of readers, Factors that highlight these differences include the point of view which story is told from, the word choice by the author, and the
In The Reader, Bernhard Schlink uses the motif of reading throughout all three parts. Many of the nuances that appear in the relationship between the protagonist, Michael, and Hannah, stem from Michael reading regularly to Hannah. Schlink expressly defines and constrains the relationship between Hannah and Michael in Part One through the motif of reading. Specifically, he further complicates the balance of power in the relationship, elucidates on the personal bond that the two share, and prescribes
The Effect of Literacy on Morality in Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader In The Reader, Hanna Schmitz is a representative figure whose capacity for moral judgement is much influenced by her illiteracy. Hanna has a great secret that she would risk her life to hide--her illiteracy, which she tries to hide by continuously switching jobs. One of her jobs is a concentration camp guard, which is considered to be an immoral and unethical position except in the Nazis’s biased perspective. Another considerably
In the essay Why Readers Disagree, Tim Parks suggests that art does not exist, for people only consider objects as art by whether it can relate to their perception shaped within their particular communities. Parks stated in his essay that "when writing reviews I have occasionally used this kind of approach to help me get a fix on writer". The kind of approach Parks stated in the quote means Parks’ approach to the readers on whether the readers would break the conventional moral rule. Breaking the
Seduction of the Reader in “The Seducer’s Diary” Kierkegaard’s novel “The Seducer’s Diary” follows the story of Johannes, a man who “lived much too intellectually to be considered a seducer in the ordinary sense” and his seduction of Cordelia Wahl (Kierkegaard 9). There is however, another seduction that takes place in “The Seducer’s Diary”, namely Kierkegaard’s seduction of the reader. The purpose of the seduction of the reader in this novel is to maintain the interest of the reader through interruption
In Bernhard Schlink’s philosophical novel, The Reader, the attempt to separate the past events from the future is contrasted with the intertwined nature of the past and future. The book investigates whether one should acknowledge and accept one’s history or whether one should consign a negative past to oblivion to begin a new future. Schlink explores this through characterization, symbolism and structure. The myriad of symbolic imagery in The Reader explores the connections between the past and
Schlink’s “The Reader” is set in Germany during the 1950’s. One of the main characters is Hanna, a 35-year-old woman who is somewhat brutal and has a significant lack of compassion. Her past had a major impact on her interactions with the other characters in the novel as well as her behaviour. This could be due to her guilt regarding her war crimes, as well as trying to keep her illiteracy a secret. From the beginning of the novel, the lack of information provided to the reader regarding Hanna’s
the text. The reader is able to simply locate the information and copy, paraphrase or summarize. (summarize, count, name, list, copy, record, retell). Ex. questions: Who are the characters in the story? What is the name of the villian? Who is the main character? Where did they go on their vacation? What does Batman say to the Joker in Chapter 1? What happens in this chapter? Inferential questions have responses that are indirectly stated, implied, or require other information. The reader needs be able
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett is an eye opener to many in the modern age as millennials like myself who have dispersed of reading and have moved on to the modern age of technology. The Uncommon Reader demonstrates how reading can attract many non-readers and break certain stereotypes toward reading. As someone who was an avid reader and has gradually left the books for videos and social media. I hope to rediscover a connection with reading unlike the dying age of readers in this era. Reading