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On the Importance of Style and Structure in Literary Studies: A Formal Approach to Vladimir Nabokov’s ”Signs and Symbols”
University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities.
2025 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Sustainable development
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Abstract [en]

This bachelor’s thesis aims to delineate and reinforce the importance of style and structure in literary studies. It does so by consciously opting out of an emphasis upon content and extrinsic context, focusing first and foremost on the intrinsic and formal characteristics of Vladimir Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols.” Such an approach was made possible through the amalgamation of a few alternatives to the current methods in literary studies that seem to relegate the text and its internal dynamics to a secondary role. In other words, a formalist approach was formulated based upon the writings of various critics and writers who champion literature primarily as a literary and aesthetic phenomenon worthy of study in and of itself. The analysis proper then examines how Nabokov develops his literary material in terms of style and structure, employing a variety of chiefly Russian Formalist concepts and ideas that underscore the importance of how the text does what it does, rather than merely what it says. In sum, “Signs and Symbols” not only contains several devices and techniques that suspend meaning, lengthen perception, and constitute a unique fictional world with intricate formal dynamics, but can also be seen as a formal celebration of tenderness in an otherwise strange and indifferent world, where pain and sorrow often go unnoticed and where “beautiful weeds that cannot hide from the farmer [...] helplessly have to watch the shadow of his simian stoop leave mangled flowers in its wake, as the monstrous darkness approaches” (“Signs and Symbols” 57).

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. , p. 32
Keywords [en]
style, structure, form, literariness, Vladimir Nabokov
National Category
General Literature Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-47339OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-47339DiVA, id: diva2:1970296
Subject / course
English
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2025-06-26 Created: 2025-06-16 Last updated: 2025-10-02Bibliographically approved

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General Literature Studies

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
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More styles
Language
  • sv-SE
  • en-GB
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  • nn-NB
  • de-DE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
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