Three Seminars on Nabokov’s Lolita
First Seminar: If Lolita excites me, should I feel bad?
We may as well admit it: Nabokov’s Lolita is designed to arouse our desire. But how exactly does it work? How does Nabokov encourage readers to take pleasure in Humbert Humbert’s pedophilic experiences even if they don’t share his perversity?
2nd Seminar: What does Lolita tell us about America, then and now?
What does Lolita the book reveal about postwar American society? What might the book’s continuing popularity suggest about the yearnings and anxieties of Americans today?
3rd Seminar: Moral instruction or aesthetic bliss: What is Lolita trying to accomplish?
The fake editor who introduces Humbert’s account, John Ray Jr., suggests that it offers an important moral lesson. But Nabokov denies such an agenda, insisting that his only goal is to produce “aesthetic bliss.” Who should we believe? Are the two aims mutually exclusive or could the novel be doing both at the same time?
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