3 short essays

A GENERAL ADMONITION: When using quotes,both from the main source and critical materials, just give the essentials and shave off the rest to avoid overly long ones.Most of the narrative should be yours since we can read theirs anytime,but you should also show your awareness of both primary and critical texts,so it can be a tricky balance which you should learn to navigate.
Answer ALL three prompts.Also DONOTSUMMARIZE,ANALYSE!

1. Brian Boyd writes: “No one has felt more passion than
Nabokov for the radiance of a personal past, and no one has recollected the past with more precision. That alone would suffice to place his autobiography among the greatest ever written. But above all, Speak,Memory is the most artistic of all autobiographies. ‘The meeting point,’ as Nabokov himself defines it, ‘of an impersonal art form and a very personal life story.’” Do you agree with this assessment? If you do, please discuss at least three concrete examples from at least three different chapters, of how these points are illustrative of Nabokov’s autobiography. If you don’t agree, discuss at least three concrete examples from at least three different chapters of where it falls short. Please make sure you use and incorporate the article from the Companion on his art of autobiography (there is another article on a similar topic — and by the same author ? — on the course web site that you may also want to consult). Length: 3 double^space pages

2. Nabokov’s childhood versus Luzhin’s. What went right in
Nabokov’s and wrong in Luzhin’s? Do you think Nabokov, when he describes his childhood in Speak,"Memory, wants us to think he was also a child prodigy of sorts? Why yes, why no? Do you think the treatment of this theme of the influence of one’s childhood, and the novel as a whole, are in any way particularly “Russian” or universal? Please make use of Dolinin’s article for the latter question and feel free to discuss Nabokov’s distaste of Freud, for whose theories the impact of one’s childhood was also of course of crucial importance. Length: 3 double^space pages

3.A. Please analyze and discuss ANY"aspect of the relationship between the narrator and his protagonist in The"Luzhin"Defense which is of interest to you. Length: 2^double^space pages