Vladimir Nabokov's "Good Readers and Good Writers" - Rhetorical Devices

Vladimir Nabokov’s essay, “Good Readers and Good Writers” uses the rhetorical devices of allusion and rhetorical questions. Allusion is figure of speech where the author makes a reference to a place, time, event, work of art, or other literary work within his or her own work. I found this allusion in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph of page three. ”Literature was born on the day when a boy came crying wolf, wolf, and there was no wolf behind him.” (Nabokov 3) He made a reference to “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, a popular literary work from the past, so therefore he used allusion.

Nabokov also used rhetorical questions throughout his essay. Rhetorical questions are questions the author asks, but does not really have a yes or no answer to. They are put in so that you can focus more on what the author is trying to say to you and to spur your mind. It helps you better understand the overall point of the literary work and they are very helpful in that sense.  Some rhetorical questions he asks are, “Can we rely on Jane Austen’s picture of landowning England with baronets and landscaped grounds when all she knew was a clergyman’s parlor?”, “Can we expect to glean information about places and times from a novel?”, or “Can anybody be so naïve as to think he or she can learn about the past from those buxom best-sellers that are hawked around by book clubs under the heading of historical novels?” He asks these questions, only so that you give thought to them so you can better comprehend his thoughts.

Nabokov Vladimir. “Good Readers and Good Writers.” Lectures on Literature. 1948. 4.