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75 8. Reading Readings, and Art about Art I would like to shift now from the novel’s early signals to hermeneutic indices that deal with the interpretation of verbal texts and other kinds of semiotic constructs, as distinct from “realia” such as characters’ remarks to each other, their appearance, behavior, thoughts, emotions, or the spaces they inhabit. In other words, I want to examine scenes when characters are shown to be reading words or trying to make sense of other types of communication such as paintings or music. Because these exegetic moments deal with artifacts like the novel Anna Karenina itself, it is worth exploring the possibility that the acts of interpretation depicted in the novel are relevant for understanding something about the novel—such as its form, its status as a text, and, more broadly, how it conceives of the generation of meaning.1 8.1. Varieties of Texts The first act of reading appears on the novel’s second page when Stiva recalls how Dolly intercepted his note to a former governess that reveals that they have been having an affair. Even though the narrator participates in the characterization of this note as “revealing everything” (otkryvsheiu vse), thus indicating that its message is unequivocal, Dolly acts as though she cannot fully understand it and turns to Stiva to ask what it means. In other words, in her distraught state she is willing to rely on Stiva’s mediating reaction, on whatever context or code (or lies) he may bring to an utterance that she hopes does not have the fixed meaning it appears to have. Unfortunately for Stiva, his reaction causes Dolly to break with him. But, as the narrator explains, had Stiva acted differently, he might have succeeded in redefining the note in a way that would have accorded with Dolly’s attempt to deny its import. Her act of reading thus emerges as relativized because it is a function of her own wishes. This raises a small but important question about the extent to which determinate verbal meaning is possible in this novel and thus about the efficacy of the novel’s didacticism , which is sounded as early as its first sentence. Dolly’s experience is also significant because it is early evidence of continuity between the way characters interpret verbal meaning and how they view each other (see 13). This pattern continues as the novel unfolds. Later the same morning Stiva reads a series of everyday texts as he goes through his usual routine. The first is a telegram from Anna, announcing her arrival on the following day. “Thank God,” says Matvei, the faithful valet, when Stiva tells him the news, which indicates that the servant understands the message the same way as his master does—in terms of Anna’s promise to help patch up Stiva’s marriage (5, I.2). But Dolly’s response to the telegram is quite different. After Matvei shows it to her at Stiva’s request, she informs Stiva that she is leaving and that he can do whatever he wants when Anna arrives. Stiva then turns to his morning mail, which includes a letter from a merchant who is preparing to buy a forest on Dolly’s estate (6, I.3). When this sale takes place later in the novel, we learn that Stiva is quite carefree about it and is delighted with the money he receives, even though Levin insists that Stiva has allowed himself to be fleeced by the merchant. However, during the morning in question, Stiva’s attitude to the letter is controlled entirely by his falling out with Dolly: the letter pains him because it mixes financial considerations into his attempt to mend his relations with her. A similar relativization of meaning characterizes Stiva’s reading of his liberal newspaper . We are told that he originally chose to subscribe to it because its views accorded well with his personality, or so he imagines (7, I.3). But this morning, although Stiva can still read successfully between its lines, he finds that it does not give him the pleasure he usually receives—once again because of his damaged relations with Dolly. There are comparable moments later in the novel as well. For example, Anna gets a note from Karenin that she understands but that sidesteps her confession as if she had never made it, which recalls Dolly’s wishful reaction to Stiva’s note to the governess (292, III.16); Karenin...

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