Lolita
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Reading and Writing Workshop
Through a Glass, Darkly: Reading Nabokov’s Lolita in Literary and Cultural Context
Focus: Literary analysis, narrative voice, ethical considerations, and intertextuality
Session 1: Introduction to Nabokov and the Unreliable Narrator
Focus: Introduce Vladimir Nabokov’s background and narrative techniques, especially the unreliable narrator.
How do Humbert Humbert and Poe’s narrator manipulate reader perception? Write a response analyzing their methods.
Session 2: Obsession, Beauty, and Romanticism
Focus: Explore themes of obsession, aesthetics, and romantic idealism warped by predatory behavior.
Compare Humbert’s romanticization of Lolita with the knight’s infatuation in Keats’ poem. What dangers arise from idealizing beauty?
Session 3: American Culture and Satire in Lolita
Focus: Analyze Nabokov’s satirical treatment of 1950s American culture and media.
Discuss how Nabokov uses satire to critique American consumerism. How does this shape your interpretation of the novel’s setting?
Session 4: Control, Language, and Power
Focus: Study how Humbert uses poetic language to obscure abuse and control the narrative.
How does language serve as a tool of control in both texts? Write a comparison essay exploring power through narration.
Session 5: Why Lolita Was Banned
Focus: Investigate the reasons for Lolita’s censorship, including its themes of sexuality, abuse, and moral outrage.
Do you believe Lolita should have been banned? Why or why not? Use historical examples and literary comparisons in your argument.
Session 6: Writing with Nabokov – Style and Subversion
Focus: Practice emulating Nabokov’s stylistic play—lush description, unreliable point of view, and thematic contradiction.
Focus: Literary analysis, narrative voice, ethical considerations, and intertextuality
Session 1: Introduction to Nabokov and the Unreliable Narrator
Focus: Introduce Vladimir Nabokov’s background and narrative techniques, especially the unreliable narrator.
- Reading Excerpt: Lolita, Part One (Opening pages)
- Public Domain Companion Text: Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2148
How do Humbert Humbert and Poe’s narrator manipulate reader perception? Write a response analyzing their methods.
Session 2: Obsession, Beauty, and Romanticism
Focus: Explore themes of obsession, aesthetics, and romantic idealism warped by predatory behavior.
- Reading Excerpt: Lolita, selections where Humbert describes Lolita through lyrical language.
- Public Domain Companion Text: John Keats’ La Belle Dame sans Merci
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23684
Compare Humbert’s romanticization of Lolita with the knight’s infatuation in Keats’ poem. What dangers arise from idealizing beauty?
Session 3: American Culture and Satire in Lolita
Focus: Analyze Nabokov’s satirical treatment of 1950s American culture and media.
- Reading Excerpt: Lolita, Humbert and Lolita’s road trip scenes.
- Public Domain Companion Text: Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt (Chapters on materialism and middle-class culture)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1155
Discuss how Nabokov uses satire to critique American consumerism. How does this shape your interpretation of the novel’s setting?
Session 4: Control, Language, and Power
Focus: Study how Humbert uses poetic language to obscure abuse and control the narrative.
- Reading Excerpt: Humbert’s journal-style accounts of his relationship with Lolita.
- Public Domain Companion Text: Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/233
How does language serve as a tool of control in both texts? Write a comparison essay exploring power through narration.
Session 5: Why Lolita Was Banned
Focus: Investigate the reasons for Lolita’s censorship, including its themes of sexuality, abuse, and moral outrage.
- Reading Excerpt: Controversial passages from Lolita, alongside Nabokov’s own foreword.
- Public Domain Companion Text: Excerpts from Ulysses by James Joyce (another banned work for obscenity)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4300
Do you believe Lolita should have been banned? Why or why not? Use historical examples and literary comparisons in your argument.
Session 6: Writing with Nabokov – Style and Subversion
Focus: Practice emulating Nabokov’s stylistic play—lush description, unreliable point of view, and thematic contradiction.
- Writing Activity:
Write a short story from the point of view of a character whose perceptions are suspect or self-serving. Try to mimic Nabokov’s ornate style while embedding a deeper truth beneath the surface. - Public Domain Mentor Text: Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/174