Subject
Comment on MATT/Suellen exchange Lolita's subjectivity and America
From
Date
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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
---------------------------------------------------------------
Quoting Matthew Roth <MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU>:
> Suellen,
> I don't disagree with your thoughts below. The very fact--as Vera
> pointed out--that Dolores seems daily to be in tears (or on the
> verge of them) is enough--along with the other details you
> mention--to help us see that there is another girl beneath Humbert's
> mannequin. My response was to the question of whether we are able
> to access her subjectivity. It seems to me that the pang of sorrow
> that throbs through the book is largely produced by the realization
> that there is a Dolores in there whom we will never be able to
> reach. We glimpse her for a moment, but she is gone, replaced,
> before we can save her.
>
> Best,
> Matt
>
>>>> On 4/15/2008 at 12:21 PM, in message
>>>> <63566160FBD1BE43873B5A100A4222DF047597C1@mailbe17.email.Vanderbilt.edu>,
>>>> "Stringer-Hye, Suellen" <suellen.stringer-hye@VANDERBILT.EDU>
>>>> wrote:
>
> I respectfully disagree with this conclusion. While it is true that
> Humberts first person narrative does create an illusory Lolita, the
> intricate patternings and images underlying that prose, reveal quite
> a bit about Dolores Haze, her real relationship with her mother, the
> loss of her brother and father, her teenage dreams and her adult
> difficulties. This seems to me Nabokovs extraordinary achievement
> in Lolita--- and one that is often overlooked.
> Suellen Stringer-Hye
>
>
>
> From:Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Matthew Roth
> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 8:22 AM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: Lolita's subjectivity and America
>
>
>
> Barrieasked: "What are the best writings, if any, on what it's like
> to be Lolita, or how someone becomes Lolita? Whose imagination
> imagines what Lolita is really like -- her subjectivity?"
>
>
>
> MR: Most of the criticism I have encountered focuses on Humbert's
> "solipsizing" of Lolita. She has no subjectivity that we can access,
> since the Lolita we are given is, as Humbert says, "not she, but my
> own creation, another, fanciful Lolita--perhaps, more real than
> Lolita; overlapping, encasing her; floating between me and her, and
> having no will, no consciousness--indeed, no life of her own" (62
> AnL). Leland de la Durantaye, in his excellent, very readable book
> Style is Matter: The Moral Art of Vladimir Nabokov, does a great job
> unpacking all of the repercussions (for Humbert and for us) of this
> deeply flawed imaginative act. As he puts it, Humbert "can only
> 'enjoy in peace' his vicious circle of paradise if the real little
> girl he is do desperately mistreating does not too violently
> interpose herself--and so he decides to 'firmly ignore' her in favor
> of the 'phantasm' first formed on this fateful Sunday [the
> davenport scene]" ( 72-73). I do not think it is possible to know
> or to guess who the actual (fictional) Dolores Haze might be,
> though we know that she is not the girl Humbert gives himself and,
> by extension, us.
>
>
>
> Matt Roth
>
> Search the Nabokv-L archive with Google (
> http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
> )
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> both co-editors.
> Visit Zembla ( http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm )
> View Nabokv-L Policies ( http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm )
>
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> Search archive with Google:
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>
> Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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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
---------------------------------------------------------------
Quoting Matthew Roth <MRoth@MESSIAH.EDU>:
> Suellen,
> I don't disagree with your thoughts below. The very fact--as Vera
> pointed out--that Dolores seems daily to be in tears (or on the
> verge of them) is enough--along with the other details you
> mention--to help us see that there is another girl beneath Humbert's
> mannequin. My response was to the question of whether we are able
> to access her subjectivity. It seems to me that the pang of sorrow
> that throbs through the book is largely produced by the realization
> that there is a Dolores in there whom we will never be able to
> reach. We glimpse her for a moment, but she is gone, replaced,
> before we can save her.
>
> Best,
> Matt
>
>>>> On 4/15/2008 at 12:21 PM, in message
>>>> <63566160FBD1BE43873B5A100A4222DF047597C1@mailbe17.email.Vanderbilt.edu>,
>>>> "Stringer-Hye, Suellen" <suellen.stringer-hye@VANDERBILT.EDU>
>>>> wrote:
>
> I respectfully disagree with this conclusion. While it is true that
> Humberts first person narrative does create an illusory Lolita, the
> intricate patternings and images underlying that prose, reveal quite
> a bit about Dolores Haze, her real relationship with her mother, the
> loss of her brother and father, her teenage dreams and her adult
> difficulties. This seems to me Nabokovs extraordinary achievement
> in Lolita--- and one that is often overlooked.
> Suellen Stringer-Hye
>
>
>
> From:Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Matthew Roth
> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 8:22 AM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] QUERY: Lolita's subjectivity and America
>
>
>
> Barrieasked: "What are the best writings, if any, on what it's like
> to be Lolita, or how someone becomes Lolita? Whose imagination
> imagines what Lolita is really like -- her subjectivity?"
>
>
>
> MR: Most of the criticism I have encountered focuses on Humbert's
> "solipsizing" of Lolita. She has no subjectivity that we can access,
> since the Lolita we are given is, as Humbert says, "not she, but my
> own creation, another, fanciful Lolita--perhaps, more real than
> Lolita; overlapping, encasing her; floating between me and her, and
> having no will, no consciousness--indeed, no life of her own" (62
> AnL). Leland de la Durantaye, in his excellent, very readable book
> Style is Matter: The Moral Art of Vladimir Nabokov, does a great job
> unpacking all of the repercussions (for Humbert and for us) of this
> deeply flawed imaginative act. As he puts it, Humbert "can only
> 'enjoy in peace' his vicious circle of paradise if the real little
> girl he is do desperately mistreating does not too violently
> interpose herself--and so he decides to 'firmly ignore' her in favor
> of the 'phantasm' first formed on this fateful Sunday [the
> davenport scene]" ( 72-73). I do not think it is possible to know
> or to guess who the actual (fictional) Dolores Haze might be,
> though we know that she is not the girl Humbert gives himself and,
> by extension, us.
>
>
>
> Matt Roth
>
> Search the Nabokv-L 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 )
> 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 Nabokv-L 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 )
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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