Creating and recovering experience

The thesis of this book is that repetition is central to Tolstoy's art. The author argues that Tolstoy uses this device - or rather, complex of devices - to represent and examine the processes by which people structure and give meaning to their experience. Repetition is shown to be essential to his style, to his understanding of characters' psychology, to the structure of his work, and to his interaction with readers. In short, it defines much of what is "Tolstoyan" about Tolstoy.

In examining the link between Tolstoy's repeated verbal elements and his broader concepts of structure and meaning, the book combines close readings of key passages in the novels with an exploration of larger theoretical issues: the dynamics of reading and sense-making, the ethics and aesthetics of memory, and the function of language as a system of cognition and communication.

As a result, the book contributes not only to studies of Tolstoy and the genre of the novel but to our understanding of the relations among rhetorical, cognitive, aesthetic, and ethical aspects of great art generally.