Signs and Symbols by Nabokov (w/ Drs. Sara Karpukhin and José Vergara)

The Slavic Literature Pod

Pick up a copy of Drs. Karpukhin and Vergara’s edited collection of pedagogical essays, Reimagining Nabokov: Pedagogies for the 21st Century here!

Show Notes:

This week, Matt and Cameron tackle “Signs and Symbols” by Vladimir Nabokov and are joined in this effort by Drs. José Vergara and Sara Karpukhin. Dr. Vergara is both a returning podcast guest and an Assistant Professor of Russian on the Myra T. Cooley Lectureship at Bryn Mawr College, and Dr. Karpukhin is a Lecturer in Russian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both of them, who co-edited a new collection on Nabokov which you can get here, shared a lot of insights on reading not just this piece, but on approaching Nabokov as a whole.

Note: This podcast contains some discussions of suicide. Skip sections 5:10 - 5:21 and 34:40 - 34:52 if you would rather not listen to that.

Major themes: Reparative epistemology, The ol' New Yorker switcheroo, Open access scholarship

8:08 - “Symbols and Signs” in The New Yorker

47:14 - Dr. Vergara’s student website

The music used in this episode was “Старое Кино / Staroye Kino,” by Перемотка / Peremotka. You can find more of their work on Bandcamp and Youtube.

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