Vladimir Nabokov: ‘Signs and Symbols’. Jacqueline Hamrit, Phyllis Roth, Anthony Stadlen conduct Inner Circle Seminar 127 (11 May 2008)



   Vladimir and Dmitri Nabokov

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.
 

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

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