How work enfaiths : catechizing in the religious poetry of Denise Levertov ; and, "Writing under observation" : applying a cognitive theory of unreliability to Nabokov's Lolita

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Joseph A. George II (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Christopher Hodgkins

Abstract: "Although the experience of reading Denise Levertov's mid-period protest poetry has received attention from critics, the experience of her religious poetry has been ignored. To begin discussion on this important aspect of her work, I look to criticism of George Herbert's poetry, drawing from the process of "catechizing," as described by Stanley Fish. In, "How Work Enfaiths," I build on similarities between Levertov and Herbert, and apply Fish's theory to articulate the experience of reading Levertov's work. In "Writing Under Observation," I address the unreliability of Humbert, the narrator in Nabokov's Lolita. In particular, I deal with the question of recognizing Humbert's unreliability, which is difficult to do with the text-based theories employed by most critics. To resolve this problem, I apply Ansgar Nunning's cognitive theory of unreliability to Lolita, and demonstrate the process of identifying Humbert's unreliability by offering a case study of two readers interacting with the text."--Abstract from author supplied metadata.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2007
Keywords
Denise Levertov, mid-period, protest, poetry, religious, George Herbert, catechizing
Subjects
Levertov, Denise,--1923-1997--Criticism and interpretation.
Herbert, George,--1593-1633 --Criticism and interpretation.
Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich,--1899-1977.--Lolita
Humbert, Humbert (Fictitious character)

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