Michael Parker: The Parenthetical (January 2015)

“Punctuation,” said the essayist Pico Iyer, “gives us the human voice, and all the meanings that lie between the words.” Parker’s lecture focuses on the parenthesis—specifically the ways in which it epitomizes various (and crucial) aspects of narrative: dissemination of information, development of character, the establishment of tension, rhythm and pattern, the handling of time and—most importantly—the creation of consciousness. Texts include Conrad Aiken’s “Silent Snow, Secret Snow,” Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and examples from Nabokov, Faulkner, Joyce, Elizabeth Bishop, and Henry James (of course).