Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0026582, Thu, 29 Oct 2015 14:58:22 -0200

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ENC: [NABOKV-L] The name of L*lita
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Keeping up with the rich literary and historical sources and wonderful quotes:
Maurice Couturier [ As regards the choice of the name « Lolita » ]: “le premier et le dernier mot du texte de H.H. Nabokov s’est expliqué, dans une interview à Playboy en 1964, sur le choix de ce prénom : « Pour ma nymphette, j’avais besoin d’un diminutif avec une cadence lyrique. Une des lettres les plus limpides et les plus lumineuses c’est le ‘L’. Le suffixe ‘ita’ comporte beaucoup de tendresse latine, et il me fallait cela. D’où Lolita. Cependant, ce prénom ne doit pas être prononcé comme vous et la plupart des Américains le faites : low-lee-ta, avec un ‘L’ lourd, pâteux et un ‘o’ long. Non. La première syllabe doit être comme dans ‘lollipop’ le ‘L’ liquide et délicat, et le ‘lee’ pas trop tranchant. Il va sans dire que les Espagnols et les Italiens le prononcent avec exactement la note nécessaire d’espièglerie et de caresse. Une autre considération a été le murmure bienvenu du nom-source, du nom-fontaine : ces roses et ces larmes dans ‘Dolores’. » (Intransigeances, p. 35).
MC quote in English: “For my nymphet I needed a diminutive with a lyrical lilt to it. One of the most limpid and luminous letters is “L.” The suffix “-ita” has a lot of Latin tenderness, and this I required too. Hence: Lolita. However, it should not be pronounced as you and most Americans pronounce it: Low-lee-ta, with a heavy, clammy “L” and a long “o.” No, the first syllable should be as in “lollipop,” the “L” liquid and delicate, the “lee” not too sharp. Spaniards and Italians pronounce it, of course, with exactly the necessary note of archness and caress. Another consideration was the welcome murmur of its source name, the fountain name: those roses and tears in “Dolores.” My little girl’s heart-rending fate had to be taken into account together with the cuteness and limpidity. Dolores also provided her with another, plainer, more familiar and infantile diminutive: Dolly, which went nicely with the surname “Haze,” where Irish mists blend with a German bunny—I mean a small German hare.”


Jansy Mello : I’ve often wondered why V.Nabokov had linked Lolita’s surname “Haze” with the “small German hare” (“Hase”) since his writer’s ears were always perfectly attuned to the melody of words and “Hase” in German doesn’t sound like “Haze” at all!
Now I can suggest a new theory: V.Nabokov deliberately mispronounced “Hase” to demonstrate to his gullible readers that his knowledge of the German was very poor indeed. His playfulness may have extended to his choice of Charlotte’s maiden name (Becker) and Lolita’s married name (Schiller), both being common German surnames. Remember also his fantasies about “Lotte” as a child and the exchange of nicknames: “Lottelita, Lolitchen.”
Also: Cf. VN Screenplay (1962): “Quilty: Lo-li-ta, that's right. Lolita. Diminutive of Dolores, the tears and the roses.” Cp. with the 1964 interview’s: “was the welcome murmur of its source name, the fountain name: those roses and tears in “Dolores.”


MC article: “Nabokov avait-il lu la nouvelle de Lichberg, « Lolita », parue en allemand em 1919 ? Rien ne le dit. Le nom avait déjà été utilisé dans des titres, notamment en France, comme dans 'En Villégiature. Lolita' (1894) d’Isidore Gès, 'La Chanson de Lolita' (1920) de René Riche, qui fait écho au livre où Pierre Louÿs met en scène des nymphettes, 'Chanson de Bilitis' (1894), ou encore 'Cette saloperie de Lolita' (1953) de Chriss Frager. Valery Larbaud avait composé une variation sur ce nom dans 'Des prénoms féminins' (1927)[ ] Lolita est une petite fille ; Lola est en âge de se marier ; Dolores a trente ans ; doña Dolores a soixante ans. Ou encore : je me permets de demander à don José des nouvelles de la jeune veuve, sa sœur, doña Dolores. Reçu ‘avec toute confiance’, en ami de la maison, je ne tarde pas à appeler Dolores ? Un jour, inspiré par l’amour, je murmurerai : Lola. Et, le soir des noces, j’aurai Lolita dans mes bras. (Valery larbaud) [ Love inspired me to murmur: Lola. And, in the afternoon of our wedding day, I’ll have Lolita in my arms.” (JM’s imprecise translation into English).
Cf: “She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.” (N,I,1)… Larbaud’s influence can hardly be denied by Von Lichberg-adepts. We should keep in mind also that, in “ADA, or Ardor” there are at least two references to Pierre Louÿs and to his poems in “Chanson de Bilitis” with a couple of Lesbian “nymphettes”…


MC article: Nymphette[ ]Nabokov y cite un vers de John Dyer (1699-1757) tiré du recueil The Ruins of Rome : « Flow’r bow’rs they seek. Or cool Nymphean groto » (Tonnelles fleuries ils recherches. Ou grotte nymphéenne »). Il évoque aussi parmi ses sources Michael Drayton (1563-1631) et Virgil. [ ]Le mot « nymphette », dont la plupart des dictionnaires français reconnaissent qu’il a été réintroduit dans la langue française par le roman de Nabokov, était utilisé en France jusqu’au début du XVIIe siècle. [ ] Le mot apparaît déjà chez l’écrivain anglais Michael Drayton (1563-1631). Il existe un petit roman anglais, intitulé Nymphet (1915) écrit par J. L. J. Carter [ ]Emma, la fille du directeur de la prison dans Invitation au supplice, est la première véritable nymphette dans l’œuvre nabokovienne, suivie de peu par la fillette anonyme de L’Enchanteur ; cependant, plusieurs autres personnages préfigurent Lolita, comme Machenka dans le premier roman, Sonia dans L’Exploit, Margot dans Rire dans la nuit, Mariette dans Brisure à senestre, de sorte que l’on peut prétendre que la nymphette constitue le « mythe personnel » de Nabokov. (Voir Maurice Couturier, « Les scansions du mythe », in "Lolita", Paris, Autrement, Coll. Figures Mythiques, 1998).“One can surmise that the nymphet constitutes Nabokov’s personal myth” (JM translation)

Jansy Mello: Yes, a very apt rendering “the nymphet as Nabokov’s personal myth” (in a former posting I mentioned that, in my opinion… “The ‘Lolita’ theme came up in V. Nabokov long before 1955, in “The Gift,” in “The Enchanter” and in the short-story “A Nursery tale”. It continued to be present in VN’s mind: he needed no other prompting from the “outside” for coming up with HH’s fantasies.)
Why does it seem so difficult to imagine that VN’s German was not as bad as Brian has emphasized, that he had actually read Von Lichberg’s book - among all the other suggestive novels and poems related to the name “Lolita”?
Nevertheless, I suspect that instead of needing to find inspiration in it, he felt irritated by the author’s having arrived at a similar theme and name, both so close to his heart, since he might have felt “robbed” of them by his predecessor? Then the games with German “Lotte” and “Lolitchen”, plus the “Hase/Haze” pseudo equivalence and his heroine’s German lineage (Miller/Schiller)** would be a part of his repudiation of Von Lichberg’s putative source of inspiration…

As conjectures go, why not follow this line of reasoning around the possibility of a strongly denied “pseudo-plagiarism” ?




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