Talk:Signs and Symbols

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This is really a pretty poor summary. I would cut down the summary of the story, and explain where it stands as a criticism of structuralism. Not confident enough to write something. But taking this story at face value (i.e., interpreting it through the lens of structuralism) misses the point, which is that Nabokov is parodying structuralism. 141.157.16.139 (talk) 06:31, 9 March 2010 (UTC) malicioussmurf@gmail.com[reply]

Bibliography by request[edit]

A lot of this is from the bibliography of criticism of Nabokov's short stories at Zembla.

Carroll, William. "Nabokov's Signs and Symbols." In A Book of Things About Vladimir Nabokov, ed. Carl R. Proffer (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1974), pp. 203-217. ["Pioneering" reader-response approach, according to Dolinin. That is, apparently, the view that Nabokov uses cryptic detail to lure readers into the same "referential mania" that the boy suffers from, which Carroll says gives us "esthetic responsibility" for his death.]

Rosenzweig, Paul. "The Importance of Reader Response in Nabokov's 'Sign and Symbols'." Essays in Literature, 7 (Fall 1980), pp. 255-260

Hagopian, John V. "Decoding Nabokov's 'Signs and Symbols'." Studies in Short Fiction (Newberry, SC), Spring 1981, 18:2, pp. 115-119.

Andrews, Larry R. "Deciphering 'Signs and Symbols'." In Rivers, Julius Edwin and Charles Nicol (eds.), Nabokov's Fifth Arc: Nabokov and Others on His Life's Work. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982, pp. 139-152.

Richter, David H. "Narrative Entrapment in Pnin and 'Signs and Symbols'." Papers on Language and Literature (Edwardsville, IL), Fall 1984, 20:4, pp. 418-430. [Reader-response analysis]

Tammi, Pekka. "Nabokov's Symbolic Cards and Pushkin's 'The Queen of Spades'." The Nabokovian, Fall 1984, 13, pp. 31-32.

Lane, John B. "A Funny Thing about Nabokov's 'Signs and Symbols'." Russian Language Journal 40 (1986), pp. 147-160.

Dole, Carol M. "Innocent Trifles; Or, 'Signs and Symbols'." Studies in Short Fiction (Newberry, SC), Summer 1987, 24:3, pp. 303-305.

Field, David. "Sacred Dangers: Nabokov's Distorted Reflection in 'Signs and Symbols'." Studies in Short Fiction (Newberry, SC), Summer 1988, 25:3, pp. 285-293.

Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991, pp. 115, 117-119, 126-127. "...one of the greatest short stories ever written... works as poignant realism..." but raises the possibility that the final telephone announces the boy's death and thus that all the details that seemed to presage doom were carefully worked by a higher power.

Parker, Stephen Jan. "Vladimir Nabokov and the Short Story." Russian Literature Triquarterly (Ann Arbor, MI), 1991, 24, pp. 63-72. [May include relevant material]

Mignon, Charles W. "A Referential Reading of Nabokov's 'Signs and Symbols'." Studies in Short Fiction (Newberry, SC), Spring 1991, 28:2, pp. 169-175.

Martin, Terry J. "Ways of Knowing in Nabokov's 'Signs and Symbols'." Journal of the Short Story in English (Nashville, TN), Autumn 1991, 17, pp. 75-89.

Barabtarlo, Gennady. "Nabokov's Little Tragedies, (English Short Stories)," in Aerial View: Essays on Nabokov's Art and Metaphysics. New York: Peter Lang, 1993, pp. 91-93.

Toker, Leona. "'Signs and Symbols' in and out of Contexts." In Nicol, Charles and Gennady Barabtarlo (eds.), A Small Alpine Form: Studies in Nabokov's Short Fiction (New York: Garland, 1993), pp. 167-180.

Wood, Michael. "Consulting the Oracle." Essays in Criticism (Oxford, England), April 1993, 43:2, pp. 93-111. [On "Signs and Symbols."]

Morris, J. "Signs and Symbols and Signs." The Nabokovian, Spring 1994, 32, pp. 24-28.

Wood, Michael. The Magician's Doubts: Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction. London: Chatto & Windus, 1994, p. 74.

Barabtarlo, Gennady. "English Short Stories". In: The Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov (ed. Vladimir E. Alexandrov), New York: Garland, 1995, pp. 101-117 [Probably includes relevant material]

Shrayer, Maxim D. The Poetics of Vladimir Nabokov's Short Stories, with Reference to Anton Chekhov and Ivan Bunin, Ph.D., Yale, Spring 1995. [Probably includes relevant material]

Shrayer, Maxim D. "Mapping Narrative Space in Nabokov's Short Fiction," Slavonic and East European Review 75:4 (October 1997), pp. 624-41. [Probably includes relevant material]

Shrayer, Maxim D. "A Dozen Notes to Nabokov's Short Stories." The Nabokovian, no. 40 (Spring 1998), pp. 42-63. [May include relevant material]

Tookey, Mary. "Nabokov's 'Signs and Symbols'." Explicator (Washington, DC), Winter 1988, 46:2, pp. 34-36.

Shrayer, Maxim D. The World of Nabokov's Stories. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999. [Probably includes relevant material]

Malin, Irving. "Reading Madly by Irving Malin," Torpid Smoke: The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov. Steven G. Kellman and Irving Malin (eds.) Amsterdam; Atlanta, Ga: Rodopi, 2000, pp. 219-227. [Reader-response approach—Malin quits reading after the first section and thinking obsessively, one word at a time, about possible significances, because "I am placed in the young man's position."]

Trzeciak, Joanna. "Signs and Symbols and Silentology." Nabokov at Cornell (ed. Gavriel Shapiro), Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2003. [Haven't read this one yet, but the author apparently focuses on the literal level, the parents' suffering.]

Drescher, Alexander N. "Arbitrary Signs and Symbols." October 2003. Mostly decodes cryptic details, with a lot of reference to the Holocaust. The third phone call is the boy saying he has escaped from the asylum and wants to come home.

Dolinin, Alexander. "The Signs and Symbols in Nabokov's 'Signs and Symbols'". November 2004. Decodes the cryptic details as the boy's joyful communication to his parents (which they don't understand yet) that he has escaped from the asylum into the afterlife and they will join him there.

Bontila, Ruxanda. "Photograph Reading in 'Signs and Symbols.'" In The Nabokovian #55, (Fall 2005), 44-48.

Hamrit, Jacqueline. "The Silence of Madness in 'Signs and Symbols' by Vladimir Nabokov" PsyArt: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts, article 060303 (2006). [The dread names of Foucault and Derrida are invoked in the abstract.]

There was a lot of discussion of the story in on NABOKV-L April and May, 2008 (search both pages for "sign"). There was also a brief poll on the mysterious third phone call in March and April, 2005. —JerryFriedman (Talk) 05:56, 13 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]