Is Anna Karenina a nightmare?

[Ecurb]

In this issue of New York Review of Books, Janet Malcolm shows how Tolstoy uses the structure of dreams to add resonance and drama to "Anna Karenina". Here's the article:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/jun/25/dreams-and-anna-karenina/

Malcolm claims that Tolstoy's supposed "naturalism" is actually the result of his mastery of manipulative literary techniques.

[entropic island]

good article

definitely an intricate structure there that's easy to overlook, though anna's weird sex dream is a great moment and i don't buy the horse racing scene as a 'lateness dream.' there does seem to be cognitive dissonance in critics who remark the undisturbed mimetic reality of the book and then turn around to praise its free indirect style.

[chrisvia]

Criticism like this irks me, though I engaged in it extensively for my MA (perhaps that's why it irks me!). Entropic gets at the root of my being irked when he refers to cognitive dissonance. In this case, think about the redundancy present in "manipulative literary techniques." What other types of literary (or other artistic) technique are there, other than to manipulate the reader? In the end, I don't feel I've been given anything from which to get more out of my experience with Tolstoy. (And the same may be said of my own thesis, which I peruse and ever cringe.)

[entropic island]

fair, but i think the (admittedly clunky) manipulative descriptor is intended to upset common ideas about tolstoy's 'realism.'

[Jackson Richardson]

"manipulative literary techniques." What other types of literary (or other artistic) technique are there, other than to manipulate the reader?

I’m not an academic and I sense “manipulative” is being used in a particular academic sense. In demotic usage it has overtones of unfair pressure being put to play. But readers want to be delighted, intrigued, seduced, interested or whatever by the writer. In a neutral sense to be manipulated.

The redundant word I notice here is “cognitive” in the phrase “cognitive dissonance”.