Englisches Seminar, Nadelberg 6, Grosser Hörsaal
The Perils of Interpretive Narcissism in Nabokov’s ‘Signs and Symbols’
Called “insanely inspired,” “a brilliant oddity,” and “one of the greatest short stories ever written,” Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” has generated a number of ingenious but often incomplete or misguided interpretations. If we assume that an interpretation is misguided or incomplete if it ignores internal textual materials that flatly contradict it or put it in doubt, than there is really no satisfactory published interpretation. A satisfactory interpretation would be one that accounts for, or gives the impression that it could account for all of the story’s patterns of significance. A careful study of the means by which the story resists interpretation is in order.
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