Document Type : Original Article
Author
-Associate professor of Persian language and literature Humanities faculty- University of Isfahan
Abstract
Vladimir Nabokov’s short story ‘Signs and Symbols’ (1948) presents a deceptively simple narrative: an elderly Jewish couple visiting their mentally ill son in a sanatorium, then returning home to receive puzzling phone calls. However, beneath this surface lies a dense network of signs, symbols, and referential delusions that challenge any stable interpretation. The son suffers from “referential mania”, a condition in which every natural or artificial object (clouds, dead birds, playing cards, telephone rings) seems to carry a coded message uniquely addressed to him. This clinical picture resonates deeply with Jacques Lacan’s psychoanalytic theory, particularly his concepts of the split subject, the three registers (Imaginary, Symbolic, Real), and the fundamental role of misrecognition and slippage in the production of meaning. This study asks: How does Nabokov’s story stage Lacanian category errors, and what are the implications for understanding subjectivity and literary signification? By combining psychoanalysis and semiotics, the research moves beyond traditional symbol-hunting to reveal the structural indeterminacy that defines both psychosis and narrative art.
Keywords
Ackerman, H., Biggs, M., Crossley, J. N., Goodman, W., White, F., & Leving, Y. (2010). Psychosis, performance, schizophrenia, literature: An interdisciplinary roundtable discussion on Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols.” In Y. Leving (Ed.), Anatomy of a short story: Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (pp. 15–19). Continuum.
Andrews, L. R. (1982). Deciphering “Signs and Symbols.” In J. E. Rivers & C. Nicol (Eds.), Nabokov’s fifth arc: Nabokov and others on his life’s work (pp. 139–152). University of Texas Press.
Archard, D. (1984). Consciousness and the unconscious. Open Court.
Barabtarlo, G. (1995). English short stories. In V. E. Alexandrov (Ed.), The Garland companion to Vladimir Nabokov (pp. 101–117). Garland Publishing.
Biggs, M., & Leving, Y. (2010). Approaching the story through theater. In Y. Leving (Ed.), Anatomy of a short story: Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (pp. 19–21). Continuum.
Borges, J. L. (1997). The library of Babel (A. Hurley, Trans.; E. Desmazières, Illus.). David R. Godine.
Braunstein, N. A. (2003). Desire and jouissance in the teachings of Lacan. In J.-M. Rabaté (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Lacan (pp. 102–110). Cambridge University Press.
Carroll, W. (1974). Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols.” In C. R. Proffer (Ed.), A book of things about Vladimir Nabokov (pp. 203–217). Ardis.
Crossley, J. N. (2010). Approaching “Signs and Symbols” through mathematics. In Y. Leving (Ed.), Anatomy of a short story: Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (pp. 22–26). Continuum.
Dolinin, A. (1995). The Gift. In V. E. Alexandrov (Ed.), The Garland companion to Vladimir Nabokov (pp. 135–156). Garland Publishing.
Evans, D. (1996). An introductory dictionary of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Routledge.
Field, D. (1988). Sacred dangers: Nabokov’s distorted reflection in “Signs and Symbols.” Studies in Short Fiction, 25(3), 285–293.
Fink, B. (1995). The Lacanian subject: Between language and jouissance. Princeton University Press.
Foucault, M. (2006). Madness and civilization. Vintage Books.
Garrido, A. (2010). The referential mania: An attempt of the deconstructivist reading. In Y. Leving (Ed.), Anatomy of a short story: Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (pp. 304–324). Continuum.
Garrido, A. (2013). The referential mania of “Signs and Symbols”: Reading Nabokov through Freud and Lacan. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 15(4), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.2338
Goodman, W. (2010). Approaching “Signs and Symbols” through psychiatry. In Y. Leving (Ed.), Anatomy of a short story: Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (pp. 28–30). Continuum.
Grigg, R. (1999). From the mechanism of psychosis to the universal condition of the symptom: On foreclosure. In D. Nobus (Ed.), Key concepts of Lacanian psychoanalysis (pp. 48–74). London, UK: Routledge.
Hagopian, J. V. (1981). Decoding Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols.” Studies in Short Fiction, 18(2), 115–119.
Johnston, A. (2013). Lacan. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (Fall 2013 ed.). Stanford University.
Lacan, J. (1977). The seminar of Jacques Lacan. Book XI: The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis (A. Sheridan, Trans.). W. W. Norton.
Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits: The first complete edition in English (B. Fink, Trans.). W. W. Norton.
Lacan, J. (2006). The seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book III: The psychoses, 1955–1956 (J.-A. Miller, Ed.; R. Grigg, Trans.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Lane, J. B. (1986). A funny thing about Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols.” Russian Language Journal, 40, 147–160.
Levine, S. Z. (2008). Lacan reframed: Interpreting key thinkers for the arts. I.B. Tauris.
Martin, T. J. (2010). Ways of knowing in “Signs and Symbols.” In Y. Leving (Ed.), Anatomy of a short story: Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (pp. 19–21). Continuum.
Mignon, C. W. (1991). A referential reading of Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols.” Studies in Short Fiction, 28(2), 169–175.
Mohseni, M. R. (2007). Lacan, language, and the unconscious. Pajuhesh-e Zabanhaye Khareji, (38), 85–98. (In Persian)
Nabokov, V. (1973). Nabokov’s dozen: A collection of thirteen stories. Avon Books.
Rabaté, J.-M. (Ed.). (2003). Lacan’s turn to Freud. Cambridge University Press.
Roudinesco, E. (2003). The mirror stage: An obliterated archive. In J.-M. Rabaté (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Lacan (pp. 25–32). Cambridge University Press.
Rowe, W. W. (1979). Nabokov and others: Patterns in Russian literature. Ardis.
Swales, S. (2019). Metaphor of the subject. In S. Vanheule, D. Hook, & C. Neill (Eds.), Reading Lacan’s Écrits: From “Signification of the Phallus” to “Metaphor of the Subject” (pp. 308–322). Routledge.
Toker, L. (1993). “Signs and Symbols” in and out of contexts. In C. Nicol & G. Barabtarlo (Eds.), A small Alpine form: Studies in Nabokov’s short fiction (pp. 167–180). Garland.
Tookey, M. (1988). Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols.” Explicator, 46(2), 34–36.
Trzeciak Huss, J. (2003). “Signs and Symbols and silentology.” In Nabokov at Cornell (pp. 58–67). Cornell University Press.
Verhaeghe, P. (2019). Position of the unconscious. In S. Vanheule, D. Hook, & C. Neill (Eds.), Reading Lacan’s Écrits: From “Signification of the Phallus” to “Metaphor of the Subject” (pp. 224–259). Routledge.
Vighi, F. (2019). The subversion of the subject and the dialectic of desire in the Freudian unconscious. In S. Vanheule,
- Hook, & C. Neill (Eds.), Reading Lacan’s Écrits (pp. 168–224). Routledge.
Wight, F. (2010). Approaching the story through literary studies. In Y. Leving (Ed.), Anatomy of a short story: Nabokov’s “Signs and Symbols” (pp. 29–37). Continuum.
Wood, M. (1993). Consulting the oracle. Essays in Criticism, 43(2), 93–111. https://doi.org/10.1093/eic/XLIII.2.93
Žižek, S. (1991). Looking awry: An introduction to Jacques Lacan through popular culture. MIT Press
)