Literature Questions
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In Chapter Seven, the conspicuously repeated syllable ...underscores the narrator's and Pnin's ... and figures in the narrator's repetitions, reflections, and counterfeit reality.
The satirical depiction of academia means that it is a...
"Impossible isolation" may be read as a ... phrase; at a 'basic' level, it may suggest Pnin's rationality: his reason cannot accept the illogic of this representation.
Pnin's assertions of being fully American despite his immigration and language difficulties (for example: 'I will also be taken for an American', p.28, l.1), are ...often enough to warrant caution in accepting this claim as true in this case.
"Nabokov," continues Carroll,"lurking as close to the surface as thatsuspicious green moth [a moth it is not-_G.B.], pulls back from this worst of cruelties, though one which seems inevitable to the reader." Many have observed that Nabokov discovered, described, and put to use the method of...
The dialogue is a remarkable instance of the way in which Nabokov is able to dovetail the tragic and comic modes (more of this in 2.). As Nabokov noted in his biography of Nikolay Gogol, "there is only a sibilant's difference between the ...". It also highlights Pnin's essential loneliness: in spite of his endeavours to "reform" (see the Tooth Operation), and become American, the cultural breach that separates him from Joan makes it difficult for them to connect at a deeper level, especially in such critical moments.
The information that the narrator presents to us about Pnin falls into two parts: the eyewitness reports, or the seemingly documentable data, and the ...episodes that complement them.
In this way, the object comes to convey the intensity of Pnin’s distress as yet another disaster threatens to crush him. It could therefore be considered as an objective correlative, a coinage which poet and critic ...made popular in his 1919 essay on Hamlet: "The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an 'objective correlative'; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion.”
The repetitive character of Cockerell's performances bring to mind Bergson's definition of the comic:...
The young Coleridge was a religious and political ..l. In 1794, with the poet ..., he planned an ideal democratic society with several other young people, which was to be set up in Pennsylvania.
The expression of emotion meant that existing forms had to be ..., and led to the (very modern) idea that the poem is a ...
"Sleek seal slide so happily" combines ... (/s/) with ... (/ɪ/;/ iː/)
As for the experience itself, the before and after of the operation are described in terms of ....
As Evgenia E. Anisimova points out, the procedure of teeth being pulled out also brings to mind the imagery of ... or the Russian practice of ... from noble ancestry (Repnin - Pnin), which symbolizes illegal branches on family trees and accentuates the sense of a "stub" (Russian "pen'" means "stub").
Victor Shklovsky in his ... "Art as device" defined defamiliarisation
Chapter 2 opens and closes with the same image. (p.95)...– Pnin’s and Victor’s dreams; there is a bond between them.Anna Karenina reference: ...
At the end of the passage, the mention of the "greatest" course with "an enrollment of twelve" stands out due to its superlative form next to a small number of students, which introduces ... For once, the irony is directed not towards Pnin but towards Professor Clements. It is also part of the overall satirical depiction of ..., which will be further developed in the novel (e.g., specific language requirements of Professor Blorenge).
The telephone as a ... hightlights Pnin's difficulties with English language.
Reminder: Nabokov started writing Pnin for .., we see traces of the ... structure.
Skaz is a written narrative that imitates a ...through its use of dialect, slang, and the peculiar idiom of the persona. Skaz is related to skazka; the narrator has ... Also, the fact of admitting the fact of narration adds to ...