Hindsight, Intertextuality, and Interpretation: A Symbol in Nabokov's 'Christmas'

Garcia Landa, Jose Angel

Hindsight, Intertextuality, and Interpretation: A Symbol in Nabokov's 'Christmas'

SYMBOLISM: AN INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL OF CRITICAL AESTHETICS, pp. 267-294, Rüdiger Ahrens and Klaus Stierstorfer, eds., AMS Press, 2005

14 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2010

See all articles by Jose Angel Garcia Landa

Jose Angel Garcia Landa

Universidad de Zaragoza

Date Written: 2003

Abstract

This essay examines the significance of the butterfly symbolism in Vladimir Nabokov's story 'Christmas' in the light of an interactional theory of interpretation. Intertextual elements ar shown to emerge through a process of critical debate, rereading and discursive interaction, as the cultural significance of a text is gradually established. The critical approach in this paper tries to combine the insights of discourse analysis, narrative hermeneutics, and literary pragmatics.

Keywords: Hindsight, Intertextuality, Interpretation, Discourse analysis, Hermeneutics, Pragmatics of literature, Symbolism, Nabokov, Butterflies, Rereading

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Garcia Landa, Jose Angel, Hindsight, Intertextuality, and Interpretation: A Symbol in Nabokov's 'Christmas' (2003). SYMBOLISM: AN INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL OF CRITICAL AESTHETICS, pp. 267-294, Rüdiger Ahrens and Klaus Stierstorfer, eds., AMS Press, 2005, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1624262