Questions tagged [lolita]

for the 1955 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Use with the [vladimir-nabokov] tag

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8 votes
1 answer
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Did Humbert kill a female pedestrian towards the end of Lolita?

Towards the end of the novel Lolita when Humbert has just killed Quilty and starts driving like a maniac, he says this: I turned off the road, and after two or three big bounces, rode up a grassy ...
Paajnah -'s user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
59 views

What is the history of Kant and the concept of autonomous art in literature?

If you read around literary theory, you'll frequently come across the concept of autonomy in art, the idea that an artwork is a thing unto itself, independent from the artist. As far as I understand ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
458 views

In Lolita, is there any evidence that Humbert committed a second murder?

NOTE: this question contains major spoilers for Lolita. When we first meet Humbert he's awaiting trial for murder and in the fullness of time, it becomes explicit exactly who it is that he has ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
2k views

What evidence is there that Vladimir Nabokov was abused as a child?

If you read around the works of Nabokov, it's quite common to find people stating as a fact that he was abused as a child by his uncle and that the family were aware and covered it up. I found one ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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6 votes
0 answers
94 views

Is there any significance to the names of the painters listed in Lolita?

In part 2 chapter 12 of Lolita, Humbert buys her a book about "modern American painting" and attempts to discuss some of the artists with her. The conversation is not a success but I found ...
Matt Thrower's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
289 views

What exactly drove Humbert’s preference for preteens?

In the first four chapters, our narrator Humbert, after explaining his backstory, relates an experience in which he met, in his youth, a girl he was friends with. He even had a kind of relationship, ...
Sudeep Stauble's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Analyzing the alliteration of the first line of Lolita

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Please help me analyze the alliteration from the line above. Which 'L' words attribute to the alliteration? Lo, Li from Lolita and light, ...
m m's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
292 views

Were the early sexual experiences of Lolita and her classmates inspired by the real experience of children in New England in 1947?

In the last pages of part 1 of Nabokov's Lolita Humbert relates Dolores's description of her own previous sexual experiences, in the course of which she mentions ways in which some of her coevals at ...
user9909's user avatar
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