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ENGL 291: The American Novel Since 1945

Lecture 07 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.). In the last of three lectures on Lolita, Professor Amy Hungerford discusses the broader context of Nabokov's relation to his novel: both the debate it inspires surrounding censorship and artistic originality, and the concern it evokes in him about the work of art's distillation of the living world or word. Hungerford masterfully draws connections between Nabokov's interest in lepidoptery - butterfly collecting - with his evident fear that the printed word become lapidary, or stone-like. Just as we can no longer appreciate the beauty of a butterfly's motion, once it has been pinned down, so too might living language fall victim to a kind of violence on the page, a formal equivalent to the thematic violence that increases as the novel progresses. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 07 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Censorship
[00:11:11] 2. The Second Road Trip: Lolita's Agency
[00:24:45] 3. Canceled Children: The Symbol of Elphinstone
[00:35:03] 4. Two Forms of the Aesthetic: The Living and the Lapidary

References
Lecture 7 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
Instructor: Professor Amy Hungerford. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introductions
Lecture 02 - Richard Wright, Black Boy
Lecture 03 - Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
Lecture 04 - Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (cont.)
Lecture 05 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Lecture 06 - Guest Lecture by Andrew Goldstone
Lecture 07 - Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (cont.)
Lecture 08 - Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Lecture 09 - Jack Kerouac, On the Road (cont.)
Lecture 10 - J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Lecture 11 - John Barth, Lost in the Funhouse
Lecture 12 - Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
Lecture 13 - Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye
Lecture 14 - Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Lecture 15 - Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
Lecture 16 - Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (cont.)
Lecture 17 - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian
Lecture 18 - Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (cont.)
Lecture 19 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain
Lecture 20 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 21 - Philip Roth, The Human Stain (cont.)
Lecture 22 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World
Lecture 23 - Edward P. Jones, The Known World (cont.)
Lecture 24 - Students'Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Lecture 25 - Students'Choice Novel: Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated
Lecture 26 - Review for Final Exam