Libraries as described by poet Paul Engle are sometimes repositories of dynamite, sometimes of comfort.
Tag Archives: Lolita
The Dangerous Power of Libraries
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Library", Anna Karenina, C. S. Lewis, Grand Canyon, Julius Caesar, Leo Tolstoy, libraries, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Louisa May Alcott, Merchant of Venice, Paul Hamilton Engle, Tempest, Vladimir Nabokov, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Tennis Fiction and Osaka’s Brilliance
Literary fiction that mentions tennis can raise our appreciation of the game, including the play of figures like Naomi Osaka. Nabokov, Roth, and Wallace have all written about tennis.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged David Foster Wallace, Goodbye Columbus, Infinite Jest, Naomi Osaka, Philip Roth, tennis, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Is Sexist Lit Gaslighting Women?
A Guardian article argues that critical praise for sexist male authors valorizes patriarchal attitudes.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charlotte Bronte, Donald Trump, Ernest Hemingway, Feminism, Hillary Clinton, Human Stain, Jane Eyre, MeToo, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Sexism, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Roy Moore’s Obsession with Lolitas
To understand Judge Roy Moore’s predilection for teenage girls, read “Lolita.” Like Humbert Humbert, Moore is obsessed with purity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Fundamentalism, pedophilia, Roy Moore, Vladimir Nabokov, white Christian evangelicals Comments closed
Invisible Man & Lolita Changed the ’50s
Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and Nabokov’s “Lolita” both challenged basic 1950s assumptions. The former changed public perceptions on what it meant to be black while the latter violated a tacit agreement not to go digging under neatly manicured lawns bordered by white picket fences.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 1950s, aestheticism, formalism, Hans Robert Jauss, horizon of expectations, Invisible Man, modernism, Ralph Ellison, reception theory, Richard Wright, social protest novel, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
How Is Lit Useful? Let Me Count the Ways
A recent issue of “New Literary History” explores a number of ways that literature is useful.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, Hard Times, Literary Theory, reader response, utilitarianism, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Novels: Training Ground for Citizenship
Novels have an inherently liberal dimension in that they get us to identify with people very different from us.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged conservatism, liberalism, reading, Same Sex Marriage, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Paterno’s Rapist Associate and Mr. Hyde
“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” warns us that we are in danger of becoming monsters ourselves if we don’t hold on to our humanity when responding to monsters like alleged child molester Jerry Sandusky, close associate of Coach Joe Paterno.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Child Abuse, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, monstrosity, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, Robert Louis Stevenson, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Kiki Ostrenga as Sister Carrie
Columnist David Brooks recently turned to Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 novel “Sister Carrie” in an attempt to make sense of the strange and disturbing case of 13-year-old internet celebrity Kiki Ostrenga.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged adolescence, Daniel Defoe, Internet, Kiki Ostrenga, Moll Flanders, Sister Carrie, Theodor Dreiser, Vladimir Nabakov Comments closed
