Teaching Nabokov's LOLITA in the #MeToo Era

Teaching Nabokov's Lolita in the #MeToo Era

Edited with an introduction by Eléna Rakhimova-Sommers

With contributions by Eléna Sommers, Charles Byrd, Francesca Capossela, Julian W. Connolly, Anne Dwyer, Marilyn Edelstein, Eric Naiman, José Vergara, Lisa Ryoko Wakamiya and Alisa Zhulina

Lanham: Lexington Books, 2021

Teaching Nabokov’s Lolita in the #MeToo Era seeks to critique the novel from the standpoint of its teachability to undergraduate and graduate studentsin the twenty-first century. The time has come to ask: in the #MeToo era and beyond, how do we approach Nabokov’s inflammatory masterpiece, Lolita? How do we read a novel that describes an unpardonable crime? How do we balance analysis of Lolita’s brilliant language and aesthetic complexity with due attention to its troubling content? This student-focused volume offers practical and specific answers to these questions and includes suggestions for teaching the novel in conventional and online modalities. Distinguished Nabokov scholars explore the multilayered nature of Lolita by sharing innovative assignments, creative-writing exercises, methodologies of teaching the novel through film and theatre, and new critical analyses and interpretations.