"Everything depends on where consciousness is directed" : narrative, attention and experiences of form in Tolstoy
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This dissertation explores Tolstoy's long, broad, deep engagement with questions of attention, an area which has not before been fully studied. It focuses on Tolstoy's exploration of the interrelationship between attention, narrative, writing and form through both his fiction and non-fiction. It illuminates the context of Tolstoy's inquiry into attention - his engagement with the mid-late nineteenth century science of mind and attention - specifically the field of psychophysics (pioneered by German scientists Gustav Fechner and Ernst Weber) and the English late-nineteenth century field of materialist aesthetics that it influenced, with a focus on Tolstoy's engagement in What is Art? with the work of late-nineteenth century English theorist of aesthetics James Sully, who drew on the work of Weber and Fechner. This dissertation reads Tolstoy's texts through the lens of attention, specifically the stakes between unconscious attention (as articulated in the diary entry made famous by Viktor Shklovsky in which Tolstoy realizes he cannot remember whether or not he has dusted the sofa) and unconscious attention (as in the representation of Prince Andrei walking across the battlefield at Borodino bringing conscious attention to the feel of the ground under the feet and the length of his strides). I explore narrative modes through which Tolstoy brings consciousness to attention and argue that the movements between unconscious attention and conscious attention (a state of being aware of the attention) in Tolstoy are a fundamental and unexplored dynamic of his work. Through exploring Tolstoy's investigation of the relationship between attention and awareness in this way, I seek to move us beyond the limitations of reading Tolstoy in terms of psychological realism, psychological accuracy, psychological portraiture; in other words, beyond the context of thought and the contents of the mind to the context that Tolstoy, as we see through both his non-fiction and fiction, was most invested in - the relationship between thought and awareness, between attention and awareness. By doing so, I offer an approach to reading the literary text in terms of the relationship between attention and awareness. This approach gives us a perspective on the process of attention and awareness that makes "the stone stony" -- the process of bringing consciousness to attention, of making us aware of our attention. Tracing the various modes through which Tolstoy brings consciousness to attention offers the possibility of expanding our understanding of Shklovsky's conception of renewing and revivifying perception.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Lordan, Anna |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. |
| Primary advisor | Greenleaf, Monika, 1952- |
| Primary advisor | Safran, Gabriella, 1967- |
| Thesis advisor | Greenleaf, Monika, 1952- |
| Thesis advisor | Safran, Gabriella, 1967- |
| Thesis advisor | Woloch, Alex, 1970- |
| Advisor | Woloch, Alex, 1970- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Anna Lordan. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2017. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2017 by Anna Elizabeth Lordan
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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