No Symbols Where None Intended: Literary Essays from Laclos to Beckett Literary Essays from Laclos to Beckett

An homage to Nabokov's Lectures on Literature, this collection of essays sheds new light on canonical authors such as Ibsen, Beckett, and Strindberg. Using style and structure as the connective thread, Mark Axelrod joins a wide and deep conversation on writers on writing. Front Matter....Pages i-vi Introduction....Pages 1-3 Narrateur, Narratrice: Polyphonia in Laclos’ Les Liaisons Dangereuses....Pages 4-12 The Theatre of Fiction in Turgenev’s Rudin ....Pages 13-33 Theatrical Architectonics and the Poetics of Dialogue in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler ....Pages 34-47 Poetics of Melancholia and Misogyny in August Strindberg and The Father ....Pages 48-58 Jewish Mysticism, the Commodification of Art, and the Notion of Aura in Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” ....Pages 59-67 The Poetics of Repetition in Beckett’s Watt ....Pages 68-79 Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept and the Poetics of Prose Poetry....Pages 80-95 Back Matter....Pages 96-99 Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Narrateur, Narratrice:Polyphonia in Laclos'Les Liaisons Dangereuses -- 2 The Theatre of Fictionin Turgenev's Rudin -- 3 Theatrical Architectonicsand the Poetics of Dialoguein Ibsen's Hedda Gabler -- 4 Poetics of Melancholiaand Misogyny in AugustStrindberg and The Father -- 5 Jewish Mysticism, theCommodification of Art, and the Notion of Aurain Walter Benjamin's "TheWork of Art in the Age ofMechanical Reproduction"--6 The Poetics of Repetitionin Beckett's Watt -- 7 Elizabeth Smart's By GrandCentral Station I Sat Downand Wept and the Poeticsof Prose Poetry -- Index "In Nabokov's Lectures on Literature, he writes: "Style and structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash." The essays in No Symbols Where None Intended: Literary Essays from Laclos to Beckett use Nabokov's stylistic approach to well-known texts (fiction, drama and criticism) as a point of departure. Notions of style and structure link the three prose pieces discussed in the text, (Beckett, Smart, and Turgenev,) to the fiction and drama of Ibsen and Strindberg. Mark Axelrod joins a wide and deep conversation on writers on writing"-- Provided by publisher