This study has three revisionary
goals. The first is to offer a major revaluation of aestheticism as a literary and historical idea, demonstrating that it is not limited to 'art for art's sake'. Second, it reexamines Nabokov in the light of his
aestheticism, reconciling two major trends in Nabokovian criticism by showing that Nabokov is at once an aesthete and a humanist. Third, it offers a revisionary reading of Lolita, focusing on aestheticism. In
addition, it provides a groundbreaking essay that compares three adaptations of Lolita: Nabokov's screenplay, Stanley Kubrick's film, and Adrian Lyne's recent film.
Table of Contents:
Author's preface/Lolita as Experience
1.Aestheticism and Art for Art's Sake: Poe, Wilde, and Riefenstahl
2.Nabokovian Aestheticism and the Anti-Interpretive Principle
3.Lolita and the Double Intention
4.A Litter of Lolita's : Three Adaptations of an Uncooperative Novel
5.Conclusion
Notes, Bibliography of Works Cited, Index
[Studies in American Literature No. 31]
0-7734-7960-0 $79.95/£39.95 172pp. 1999
About the author: David Andrews received his PhD. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is currently Assistant
professor, SUNY Maritime.
