Chasing Lolita: How Popular Culture Corrupted Nabokov's Little Girl All Over Again - Hardcover

Graham Vickers (author)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556526822 ISBN 13: 9781556526824

Publisher: Chicago Review Press, 2008

Synopsis

In the summer of 1958, a twelve-year-old girl took the world by storm "Lolita "was published in the United States. This child, so fresh and alive, yet so pitiable in her abuse at the hands of the novel's narrator, engendered outrage and sympathy alike, and has continued to do so ever since.Yet Lolita's image in the broader public consciousness has changed. No longer a little girl, Lolita has come to signify a precocious temptress, a cunning underage vixen who'll stop at nothing to get her man. How could this have happened?"Chasing Lolita," " "published on the fiftieth anniversary of "Lolita's "American publication, is an essential contemporary companion to Vladimir Nabokov's great novel. It establishes who Lolita really was back in 1958, explores her predecessors of all stripes, and examines the multitude of movies, theatrical shows, literary spin-offs, artifacts, fashion, art, photography, and tabloid excesses that have distorted her identity and stolen her name. It considers not just the "Lolita effect" but shifting attitudes toward the always volatile mix of sex, children, and popular entertainment from Victorian times to the present. And it also looks at some real-life cases of young girls who became the innocent victims of someone else s obsession unhappy sisters to one of the most affecting heroines in American fiction, and one of the most widely misunderstood."

About this title

Review

"In his outrageously readable literary criticism-slash-pop culture survey of her fate, Graham Vickers is determined to defend Lolita's honor through a keen analysis of Nabakov's original novel." "Toronto Star""

"Ambitious . . . a companion book to Nabokov's misunderstood masterpiece." "Bitch""

Synopsis

In the summer of 1958, a 12-year-old girl took the world by storm - "Lolita" was published in the United States - and since then, her name has been taken in vain to serve a wide range of dubious ventures, both artistic and commercial. Offering a full consideration of not only "the Lolita effect" but shifting attitudes toward the mix of sex, children, and popular entertainment from Victorian times to the present, this study explores the movies, theatrical shows, literary spin-offs, artifacts, fashion, art, photography, and tabloid excesses that have distorted Lolita's identity with an eye toward some real-life cases of young girls who became the innocent victims of someone else's obsession - unhappy sisters to one of the most affecting heroines in fiction. New insight is provided into the brief life of Lolita and into her longer afterlives as well.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chicago Review Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1556526822
• ISBN 13: 9781556526824
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256