American Literature / Unit 16 AML 1531 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Nabokov's Style and the Unreliable Narrator
Captions available
The idea
The witness credits Nabokov with stylistic subtlety, deft satire and ingenious innovations in form, and notes that Pale Fire consists of a poem by an imaginary dead poet and a critic's commentary that overwhelms it. The narrator's charm is the instrument of the deception.
In practice
A commentary that eats its poem.
Where people slip
Beautiful narration can be the trap.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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