Of Pickaninnies and Nymphets: Race in Lolita - Project MUSE

16 Nabokov Studiessubmerged. But this is because the novel as a whole operates through imagisticassociations and verbal pairings—I have tried to make my analysis faithfulto this aesthetic, which is far removed from the sort of kitsch or poshlust thatNabokov excoriated as exhibiting “overconcern with class or race” (StrongOpinions 101). My point lies rather in how the novel is concerned with racialundertones. Tropes that perpetuate racial categories are not as obvious as tapdancingpickaninnies, but can rather come in the form of aesthetic affinities,can be inherent in the way one manages descriptions, and can thus stand aspart of the very fabric of a culture’s self-understanding.My thanks, as always, to Rebecca L. Walkowitz, Thomas Schaub, and HilaryTeynor for their many insightful readings of this essay. Thanks also to theparticipants in the Contemporary Literature Colloquium at the University ofWisconsin-Madison, particularly Amy Johnson, and to my anonymous readers atNabokov Studies.Works CitedAnderson, Douglas. “Nabokov’s Genocidal and Nuclear Holocausts in Lolita.”Mosaic 29 (June 1996): 73–90.Andrews, David. Aestheticism, Nabokov and Lolita. Lewiston, NY: The EdwinMellen Press: 1999.Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years. Princeton: PrincetonUP, 1991.Calinescu, Matei. Five Faces of Modernity. Durham: Duke UP, 1987.Dickstein, Morris. Leopards in the Temple: The Transformation of AmericanFiction, 1945–1970. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2002.Himes, Chester. The Primitive. New York: Signet, 1955.Hines, Duncan. Vacation Guide. New York: Duncan Hines, Inc., 1949.Hotel Directory, Vol. 1: Northeastern. Washington, D.C.: AmericanAutomobile Association, 1940.Mizruchi, Susan. “Lolita in History.” American Literature 75.3 (2003): 629–52.Nabokov, Vladimir. The Annotated Lolita. 1955. Edited, with preface,introduction, and notes by Alfred Appel, Jr. New York: Vintage, 1991.———. Pale Fire. 1962. New York: Vintage, 1989.———. Strong Opinions. 1973. New York: Vintage, 1990.