Literature is an affair of the nerves, says Malynne Sternstein, associate professor in Slavic Languages and Literatures. In her fall quarter class on Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, Sternstein, AB’87, AM’90, PhD’96, taught her students to respond to the tingling of the nervous system created by reading Nabokov’s prose.

For Sternstein, Lolita turns not on plot, but on Nabokov’s use of language. Sternstein teaches her students to pay close attention to the text, progressing slowly but carefully to page nine of the novel by the fourth meeting of class.

To learn more about Sternstein’s close reading techniques in class discussion, visit The University of Chicago Magazine.