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Re: QUERY: Teaching Lolita
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I've never used the Annotated Lolita as a primary text in an undergraduate
course for precisely the reasons Matt describes - it just gives too much
away for first-time readers (as Appel must surely have known, figuring that
most readers would come to the annotated version only after reading it at
least once before, piquing their interest). Instead, whenever I've been
teaching a course just on Nabokov, I always use the terrific Library of
America edition, which helpfully glosses the French and other non-English
phrasings in Brian Boyd's useful notes and which includes the full (and
judiciously annotated) texts of Pnin, Pale Fire, and Nabokov's screenplay to
Lolita at a price little or no more than it would cost to buy the three
novels in the Vintage editions (making the screenplay a nice little bonus).
Certainly, it's hard to justify the LoA edition if you're teaching a course
(e. g. The American Novel) in which Lolita is the only Nabokov text, but in
that case, I've taken to using Knopf's Everyman's Library edition, which
usually costs little more than the Vintage and which uses better quality
paper that won't be fading to a thin yellow by the time the students
graduate. You have to warn the students to read only John Ray's foreword
before commencing the novel and save Martin Amis's until they've finished it
, and you still have to decide how to handle the non-English phrases (the
Everyman's edition has no notes), but in those situations, I've found that
the students will ask about the phrasings they most need to know the meaning
of, so I just allow a few minutes of every class to explain the non-English
passages - which tend to make good discussion-sparkers anyway.
But no matter what you do, Matt, if your experience is at all like mine over
the years, you'll find it hard to go very far wrong with this inexhaustibly
entertaining and instructive text. Enjoy.
Brian Walter
_____
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of Matthew Roth
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:01 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: Teaching Lolita
Dear list,
I was happy to read in the current Nabokovian Leland de la Durantaye's
article regarding Appel's Annotated Lolita. He touches on a problem that I
have pondered as I prepare to teach Lolita next spring--namely, the fact
Appel's annotations give away very early (within the notes to the first
chapter) the novel's conclusion and many of its other mysteries. As de la
Durantaye points out, this "seems to run counter to the aims of the novel,
as well as to Nabokov's professed desire to make the reader work as he did."
I'm curious, then, how others who have taught Lolita have handled this
problem. Did you avoid The Annotated Lolita altogether? Did you forbid the
reading of the footnotes, all or in part? The problem for me is that the
footnotes--esp. for someone without French--are very helpful in one way, but
damaging in another. I would appreciate thoughts on this matter.
Thanks in advance,
Matt Roth
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course for precisely the reasons Matt describes - it just gives too much
away for first-time readers (as Appel must surely have known, figuring that
most readers would come to the annotated version only after reading it at
least once before, piquing their interest). Instead, whenever I've been
teaching a course just on Nabokov, I always use the terrific Library of
America edition, which helpfully glosses the French and other non-English
phrasings in Brian Boyd's useful notes and which includes the full (and
judiciously annotated) texts of Pnin, Pale Fire, and Nabokov's screenplay to
Lolita at a price little or no more than it would cost to buy the three
novels in the Vintage editions (making the screenplay a nice little bonus).
Certainly, it's hard to justify the LoA edition if you're teaching a course
(e. g. The American Novel) in which Lolita is the only Nabokov text, but in
that case, I've taken to using Knopf's Everyman's Library edition, which
usually costs little more than the Vintage and which uses better quality
paper that won't be fading to a thin yellow by the time the students
graduate. You have to warn the students to read only John Ray's foreword
before commencing the novel and save Martin Amis's until they've finished it
, and you still have to decide how to handle the non-English phrases (the
Everyman's edition has no notes), but in those situations, I've found that
the students will ask about the phrasings they most need to know the meaning
of, so I just allow a few minutes of every class to explain the non-English
passages - which tend to make good discussion-sparkers anyway.
But no matter what you do, Matt, if your experience is at all like mine over
the years, you'll find it hard to go very far wrong with this inexhaustibly
entertaining and instructive text. Enjoy.
Brian Walter
_____
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf
Of Matthew Roth
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:01 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: Teaching Lolita
Dear list,
I was happy to read in the current Nabokovian Leland de la Durantaye's
article regarding Appel's Annotated Lolita. He touches on a problem that I
have pondered as I prepare to teach Lolita next spring--namely, the fact
Appel's annotations give away very early (within the notes to the first
chapter) the novel's conclusion and many of its other mysteries. As de la
Durantaye points out, this "seems to run counter to the aims of the novel,
as well as to Nabokov's professed desire to make the reader work as he did."
I'm curious, then, how others who have taught Lolita have handled this
problem. Did you avoid The Annotated Lolita altogether? Did you forbid the
reading of the footnotes, all or in part? The problem for me is that the
footnotes--esp. for someone without French--are very helpful in one way, but
damaging in another. I would appreciate thoughts on this matter.
Thanks in advance,
Matt Roth
Search
<http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en> the
Nabokv-L archive with Google
Contact <mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> the Editors
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
Visit Zembla <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
View Nabokv-L Policies <http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>
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