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QUERY: Lolita's subjectivity
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Hello everyone,
I have been following this discussion with interest. Last February, at a panel with Steve Blackwell and Zoran Kuzmanovich that Marianne Cotugno organized at the U of Louisville, I gave a paper entitled "Lolita, I Presume," which analyzed the various names applied to Dolores Haze over the course of the novel. I found that no one ever calls her "Lolita" except Humbert, and that he himself usually addresses her as "Lo" out loud and as "Lolita" in fantasy, memory, or imagination. He only addresses her aloud as "Lolita" three times -- twice in remembered dialogue that seems unreliable (209, 236), and once during their final meeting, when he asks her to come away with him. Dolores's answer to that question is the only time in the novel, as far as I can tell, that she acknowledges or responds to the name "Lolita" (278).
In general, I argue that Dolores doesn't seem to think of herself as "Lolita" but that she also avoids identifying herself completely with any of the names applied to her.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
***
In re the nice exhange bewteen Suellen & Matt---a minor and obvious
aside: I would suggest that the name LOLITA is Humbert's pet name for
his solipsized creation while her real name DOLORES (grief) projects
her situation.
DBJ
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I have been following this discussion with interest. Last February, at a panel with Steve Blackwell and Zoran Kuzmanovich that Marianne Cotugno organized at the U of Louisville, I gave a paper entitled "Lolita, I Presume," which analyzed the various names applied to Dolores Haze over the course of the novel. I found that no one ever calls her "Lolita" except Humbert, and that he himself usually addresses her as "Lo" out loud and as "Lolita" in fantasy, memory, or imagination. He only addresses her aloud as "Lolita" three times -- twice in remembered dialogue that seems unreliable (209, 236), and once during their final meeting, when he asks her to come away with him. Dolores's answer to that question is the only time in the novel, as far as I can tell, that she acknowledges or responds to the name "Lolita" (278).
In general, I argue that Dolores doesn't seem to think of herself as "Lolita" but that she also avoids identifying herself completely with any of the names applied to her.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
***
In re the nice exhange bewteen Suellen & Matt---a minor and obvious
aside: I would suggest that the name LOLITA is Humbert's pet name for
his solipsized creation while her real name DOLORES (grief) projects
her situation.
DBJ
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm