Subject
Re: queries (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. Ronald Alcalay <ronal@uclink.berkeley.edu>presents the
following query concerning, inter alia, responses to Linda Kauffman's
controversial article called "Framing Lolita." I have mentioned to him
Elizabeth Patnoe's essay in _College Literature_, but NABOKV-L
subscribers doubtless can provide other leads.
----------------------------------------------
This message was originally submitted by ronal@UCLINK.BERKELEY.EDU to the
NABOKV-L list at UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU. If you simply forward it back to the list,
using a mail command that generates "Resent-" fields (ask your local user
support or consult the documentation of your mail program if in doubt), it will
be distributed and the explanations you are now reading will be removed
automatically. If on the other hand you edit the contributions you receive into
a digest, you will have to remove this paragraph manually. Finally, you should
be able to contact the author of this message by using the normal "reply"
function of your mail program.
I'm finishing a dissertation chapter on the novel, arguing that
we become the targets of Nabokov's satire when we believe his assertion
that Lolita has no moral "in tow." The entire experience of reading the
novel requires moral confrontation not only with the material, but with
one's wilingness to co-create the story. I believe that the most moral
way to read is similar to Kauffman's, alert to the sex (and the possible
experience of Lolita) that many poetic passages represent, and willing to
acknowledge one's pleasure or ambivalence in reading those passages.
I also have an argument about the structure of the novel, that alternates
between periods of nuymphet-driven fantasy, and intermittent moments of
self-realization.
Does this line of thinking remind you of any recent articles or longer
studies of the novel?
Thanks for giving my querry a moment of consideration,
Ron Alcalay
following query concerning, inter alia, responses to Linda Kauffman's
controversial article called "Framing Lolita." I have mentioned to him
Elizabeth Patnoe's essay in _College Literature_, but NABOKV-L
subscribers doubtless can provide other leads.
----------------------------------------------
This message was originally submitted by ronal@UCLINK.BERKELEY.EDU to the
NABOKV-L list at UCSBVM.UCSB.EDU. If you simply forward it back to the list,
using a mail command that generates "Resent-" fields (ask your local user
support or consult the documentation of your mail program if in doubt), it will
be distributed and the explanations you are now reading will be removed
automatically. If on the other hand you edit the contributions you receive into
a digest, you will have to remove this paragraph manually. Finally, you should
be able to contact the author of this message by using the normal "reply"
function of your mail program.
I'm finishing a dissertation chapter on the novel, arguing that
we become the targets of Nabokov's satire when we believe his assertion
that Lolita has no moral "in tow." The entire experience of reading the
novel requires moral confrontation not only with the material, but with
one's wilingness to co-create the story. I believe that the most moral
way to read is similar to Kauffman's, alert to the sex (and the possible
experience of Lolita) that many poetic passages represent, and willing to
acknowledge one's pleasure or ambivalence in reading those passages.
I also have an argument about the structure of the novel, that alternates
between periods of nuymphet-driven fantasy, and intermittent moments of
self-realization.
Does this line of thinking remind you of any recent articles or longer
studies of the novel?
Thanks for giving my querry a moment of consideration,
Ron Alcalay