Sæverot, Herner. Educative Deceit: Vladimir Nabokov and the [Im]possibility of Education. 2010

Herner Sæverot begins this article with an example: how Søren Kierkegaard used deceit as a means to educate. In one of his biographical texts, it turns out that Kierkegaard's objective was to deceive his readers into a totalized and universal truth. According to Sæverot, Kierkegaard's approach shows that he was a “demystifier,” someone who wants to save an other from delusion and bring this person into a better understanding of the world. Contrary to Kierkegaard, Sæverot argues that education is [im]possible—which, he further maintains, may open up the possibility of being “educated.” Sæverot couches his argument in the context of a novel, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Through a phenomenological study, Sæverot demonstrates how Nabokov creates deceits and adverse forces in his writings so as to open up a space of education, wherein the reader can take active part. The education of Nabokov is thus unpredictable and transformative. The ways in which Nabokov deceives and “educates” can, Sæverot ultimately contends, open up new domains for the field of educational theory (and practice).