Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita

In the afterword to Lolita, Nabokov claimed that in this book he had to invent both Lolita and America after having invented Europe in his previous fiction. This paper focuses precisely on the various ways in which Nabokov “invented” America in his best-known novel. This invention is first of all th...

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Main Author: Monica Manolescu-Oancea
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: European Association for American Studies 2009-06-01
Series:European Journal of American Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/7550
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author Monica Manolescu-Oancea
author_facet Monica Manolescu-Oancea
author_sort Monica Manolescu-Oancea
collection DOAJ
description In the afterword to Lolita, Nabokov claimed that in this book he had to invent both Lolita and America after having invented Europe in his previous fiction. This paper focuses precisely on the various ways in which Nabokov “invented” America in his best-known novel. This invention is first of all the result of the author’s evolving stance on the complexity of what he called “average ‘reality’” in his works. Through a survey of Nabokov’s statements on the choice and role of place in the forewords to his Russian works and in his critical texts, I show that Lolita is indeed considered by Nabokov to be a “recreation” of American reality, to a much greater extent than his Russian works had been recreations of a given milieu. I take the metaphor of the “crazy quilt” mentioned in Lolita to suggest complexity, chromatic exuberance, hybridity. The invention of America is also the result of a process of naming. Place names will be examined, not only those which make up Quilty’s “cryptogrammic paperchase”, but also Humbert’s choice of place names. The problem of referentiality is discussed and the way recent criticism has dealt with it. Finally, the interplay between one and many is emphasized, the way in which the diversity of the “crazy quilt” is counterbalanced by the uniqueness of the mastermind having produced it. The American motto “From many make one” could be reinterpreted as “From one make many”.
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spelling doaj-art-00a6c3f191624516b0ea55823614ea2b2025-01-06T09:10:36ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362009-06-014110.4000/ejas.7550Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s LolitaMonica Manolescu-OanceaIn the afterword to Lolita, Nabokov claimed that in this book he had to invent both Lolita and America after having invented Europe in his previous fiction. This paper focuses precisely on the various ways in which Nabokov “invented” America in his best-known novel. This invention is first of all the result of the author’s evolving stance on the complexity of what he called “average ‘reality’” in his works. Through a survey of Nabokov’s statements on the choice and role of place in the forewords to his Russian works and in his critical texts, I show that Lolita is indeed considered by Nabokov to be a “recreation” of American reality, to a much greater extent than his Russian works had been recreations of a given milieu. I take the metaphor of the “crazy quilt” mentioned in Lolita to suggest complexity, chromatic exuberance, hybridity. The invention of America is also the result of a process of naming. Place names will be examined, not only those which make up Quilty’s “cryptogrammic paperchase”, but also Humbert’s choice of place names. The problem of referentiality is discussed and the way recent criticism has dealt with it. Finally, the interplay between one and many is emphasized, the way in which the diversity of the “crazy quilt” is counterbalanced by the uniqueness of the mastermind having produced it. The American motto “From many make one” could be reinterpreted as “From one make many”.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/7550place and place names in literaturegeography and representationreferentialityauthorial interference
spellingShingle Monica Manolescu-Oancea
Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
European Journal of American Studies
place and place names in literature
geography and representation
referentiality
authorial interference
title Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
title_full Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
title_fullStr Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
title_full_unstemmed Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
title_short Inventing and naming America:  Place and Place Names in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
title_sort inventing and naming america place and place names in vladimir nabokov s lolita
topic place and place names in literature
geography and representation
referentiality
authorial interference
url https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/7550
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