Subject
LOLITA avant-garde? (fwd)
Date
Body
SEE Bottom FOR EDITOR'S COMMENT.
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From: Aguirre <aguirre@navix.net>
I have a very simple question.
Was _Lolita_ considered an avant-garde work when it was first published?
Thank you,
Robert Aguirre
aguirre@ltec.net
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EDITOR'S COMMENT: This is a rather interesting question. Foregoing a
definition of "avant-garde," my own impression and recollection of the
press reviews at the time suggests that it was not GENERALLY seen as
avant-garde, although the sexual theme really deflected all other
condiderations for most readers. In a more thoughtful review Lionel
Trilling pointed to LO's roots in European Romanticism. The first article
that I offhand recall as treating the novel in terms of European modernisn
and the avant-garde is one by the late Nina Berberov in _Novyi
zhurnal_.
---------------------------------------
From: Aguirre <aguirre@navix.net>
I have a very simple question.
Was _Lolita_ considered an avant-garde work when it was first published?
Thank you,
Robert Aguirre
aguirre@ltec.net
--------------------------------------------
EDITOR'S COMMENT: This is a rather interesting question. Foregoing a
definition of "avant-garde," my own impression and recollection of the
press reviews at the time suggests that it was not GENERALLY seen as
avant-garde, although the sexual theme really deflected all other
condiderations for most readers. In a more thoughtful review Lionel
Trilling pointed to LO's roots in European Romanticism. The first article
that I offhand recall as treating the novel in terms of European modernisn
and the avant-garde is one by the late Nina Berberov in _Novyi
zhurnal_.