Pale Fire Upon the Page: the book as object, mutilation, and the transformative touch of the reader
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Date
2019-12
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Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
I’ve selected Pale Fire as a representative work through which to view issues of materiality that arise when we posit the reader’s interaction with the book object as meaningful context to their experience of the text. Because the novel invites readers to think meaningfully about their role in actively reconstructing the narrative in conjunction and allows them to author their own experience, it thereby prompts inquiries about the reader’s physical interaction with the text. Additionally, the existence of two editions of Pale Fire that significantly change the form of the book provides interesting avenues into the reader’s experience when that interaction is limited or decided for them.
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Keywords
Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire, Materiality, Books, Ergodic Literature, Hypertext