Vladimir Nabokov
‘Signs and Symbols’
A 60th Anniversary Exploration
Jacqueline Hamrit
Phyllis Roth
Anthony Stadlen
conduct
Inner Circle Seminar No. 127
Sunday 11 May 2008
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Vladimir and Dmitri Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov’s short story ‘Signs and Symbols’ (first published on 15 May 1948 in The New Yorker) was one of his favourites. His biographer Brian Boyd called it ‘one of the greatest short stories ever written’. It is the most debated of all his stories. Its subject is a young man ‘incurably deranged in his mind’. Nabokov said ‘a second (main) story is woven into, or placed behind, the superficial semitransparent one’.
What is this ‘second story’? What light does it throw on what writers and readers assume about ‘madness’ in literature?
Literary scholars Jacqueline Hamrit (Lille) and Phyllis Roth (Saratoga Springs, NY) and existential psychotherapist Anthony Stadlen (London) discuss these questions with a fourth speaker who claims to have discovered the solution. Your contribution to the discussion will be welcome.
Venue: Room C, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1
Venue: Room C, Acland Building, Regent’s College, Inner Circle, London NW1
Cost: Students £88, others £110, some bursaries; in advance
Apply to: Anthony Stadlen, ‘Oakleigh’, 2A Alexandra Avenue, London N22 7XE
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8888 6857 E-mail: stadlen@aol.com