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Query: Cora Day in Proust?
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The name LOLITA -- but why Cora Day?EDNOTE. Does anyone have the "Cora Day" (?) Proust allusion at their finger tips?
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
You´re wondering about Cora Day and since Nabokov revelled in polyssemies ( and in what Freud described as "overdetermination" ) I was also wondering about Proust, there is a place in his Recherche that sounds like "Cora Day", is there not? Again, this is only a superficial reminder, I would have to check.
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 2:19 PM
Subject: Fw: The name LOLITA -- but why Cora Day?
EDNOTE. I suppose that "Cora Day" refers to Charlotte Corday who stabbed the French revolutionary Marat to death in his bath (1793). It is the subject of a famous painting. For detail, see the URL
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:NayYJFYmXzEJ:www.asis.com/sfhs/women/charlotte.html+Marat+Corday&hl=en&lr=lang_en|lang_ru&ie=UTF-8
VN refers to Corday elsewhere. ADA? Someone should look into the contexts and find out why.
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2003 9:02 PM
Subject: The name LOLITA -- but why Cora Day?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sergey Karpukhin
>
> I would like to contribute to the Lolita thread. In Julian Barnes's Flaubert's
> Parrot, chapter 6 "Emma Bovary's Eyes", there is a short discussion of
> mistakes in literature, and among his examples the narrator Geoffrey
> Braithwaite mentions Nabokov: "Nabokov was wrong - rather surprising, this -
> about the phonetics of the name Lolita." I wonder what made him think so?
Dear Sergey Karpukhin,
Regarding the name Lolita:
It is a Spanish name (and Nabokov's pronunciation of it is not Russian as suggested by Mr Olson). I don't find the reference now, but I seem to recall that "Mr Haze" came up with the name during a (honeymoon?) visit to Mexico.
I have asked a Spanish-speaking friend about the pronunciation. She says Nabokov got the three positions of the tongue correct. Her only "correction" would be that "lee" is not quite the Spanish pronunciation which slightly shortens the vowel. Still, this is certainly no "mistake." Barnes must be -- rather surprising this -- barking.
It turns out that Lola/Lolita are short/diminuative forms of both Dolores and Charlotte.
The name Charlotte recalls "Cora Day" who seems to pop up every so often in VN -- but why?
Carolyn Kunin
----- Original Message -----
From: Jansy Berndt de Souza Mello
You´re wondering about Cora Day and since Nabokov revelled in polyssemies ( and in what Freud described as "overdetermination" ) I was also wondering about Proust, there is a place in his Recherche that sounds like "Cora Day", is there not? Again, this is only a superficial reminder, I would have to check.
Jansy
----- Original Message -----
From: D. Barton Johnson
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2003 2:19 PM
Subject: Fw: The name LOLITA -- but why Cora Day?
EDNOTE. I suppose that "Cora Day" refers to Charlotte Corday who stabbed the French revolutionary Marat to death in his bath (1793). It is the subject of a famous painting. For detail, see the URL
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:NayYJFYmXzEJ:www.asis.com/sfhs/women/charlotte.html+Marat+Corday&hl=en&lr=lang_en|lang_ru&ie=UTF-8
VN refers to Corday elsewhere. ADA? Someone should look into the contexts and find out why.
----- Original Message -----
From: Carolyn Kunin
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum
Sent: Sunday, August 10, 2003 9:02 PM
Subject: The name LOLITA -- but why Cora Day?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sergey Karpukhin
>
> I would like to contribute to the Lolita thread. In Julian Barnes's Flaubert's
> Parrot, chapter 6 "Emma Bovary's Eyes", there is a short discussion of
> mistakes in literature, and among his examples the narrator Geoffrey
> Braithwaite mentions Nabokov: "Nabokov was wrong - rather surprising, this -
> about the phonetics of the name Lolita." I wonder what made him think so?
Dear Sergey Karpukhin,
Regarding the name Lolita:
It is a Spanish name (and Nabokov's pronunciation of it is not Russian as suggested by Mr Olson). I don't find the reference now, but I seem to recall that "Mr Haze" came up with the name during a (honeymoon?) visit to Mexico.
I have asked a Spanish-speaking friend about the pronunciation. She says Nabokov got the three positions of the tongue correct. Her only "correction" would be that "lee" is not quite the Spanish pronunciation which slightly shortens the vowel. Still, this is certainly no "mistake." Barnes must be -- rather surprising this -- barking.
It turns out that Lola/Lolita are short/diminuative forms of both Dolores and Charlotte.
The name Charlotte recalls "Cora Day" who seems to pop up every so often in VN -- but why?
Carolyn Kunin