Reddit mentions of Lectures on Literature

Overly simplified response, borrowed from Nabokov: Joyce's supposed achievements in Ulysses are entirely stylistic [as you rightly say] and considered novel, but anything supposedly 'new' and worthwhile about Ulysses had already been achieved by Flaubert in Madame Bovary.

I encourage everyone to read the compiled Lectures on Literature: http://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Literature-Vladimir-Nabokov/dp/0156027755

Nabokov's smarm is second-to-none and his masterful language makes it hard to disagree with him. But it's fun to try.

You can also enjoy listening to audio lectures through things like The Great Courses or the Modern Scholar series from Recorded Books.

I have listened to a lot of professors break down works of literature, talk about genre, discuss authors, etc., just by borrowing CDs from the library or through Audible. I listen on my way to work.

In fact, (just as an aside) I really enjoyed a particular professor's work through the Modern Scholar series, and this past summer (after saving money a long time, lol) I took a trip through Scholarly Sojourns that was led by the professor. (A tour Anglo-Saxon Britain) He has courses on Grammar, Rhetoric, Poetry, Oral Tradition, Viking Sagas, Tolkien, Science Fiction, Fantasy Literature... Michael Drout is his name.

You can also take free online classes in tons of different areas, including literature from places like Coursera. I happen to have saved in my bookmarks (in the "learn" folder, lol) this little list of 60 free online literature courses...there are courses from lesser known schools, all the way up to UC Berkeley, Oxford, and Yale.

I think that, yes, you should continue to read on your own. Read novels, read for fun, read the classics. Read hard stuff. Read easy stuff and think critically about ALL of it. But expose yourself to teachers and the influence of others to help you build your toolbox and expand your comfort zone. There's some good lit-crit out there that you can read to help guide you. I enjoyed reading through Nabokov's Lectures on Literature.

There is so much out there for the self-taught learner. We live in a GREAT age, if you're motivated, you can learn anything you want from your back garden, how frigging exciting is that?!...but it can be hard to know where to start.

I recently read an article in Psychology Today about autodidacts and what makes the self-taught learner successful. Maybe you'll find it helpful or enlightening, some how.

Hope you find something helpful here :)

I agree with this! Russian literature has been my main focus for years and I bought Nabokov's Lectures on Russian Literature to see what he had to say about my favorite authors. It was so mindblowing that I ended up buying his Lectures on Literature, which covers a wide variety of proper literature, and since I didn't want spoilers, I just worked my way through most of them. It widened my scope a lot and I felt more safe to just enjoy and experience the novels because I knew I'd get a proper analysis immediately afterwards.

In the longer-term, reading both of those books and the books they were about, significantly improved my ability to understand literature.