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Nabokov and Pedophilia (fwd) -Reply
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From: Susan Sweeney <sweeney@HOLYCROSS.EDU>
I'm glad that my admittedly provocative question has provoked so much
thought! I want to assure those of you who may not know me that I am
neither a naive reader nor a prurient one. Obviously, Nabokov was not a
madman or a pedophile--or, for that matter, a twelve-year-old girl--simply
because he wrote about such beings. Obviously, he was able to
imagine and sympathize with characters who were different than
himself. But isn't it equally obvious that Nabokov, like other writers,
chose to exercise his brilliance on certain recurring themes because he
found them personally meaningful? One such theme--which interested
him for various reasons, of course--is the agonizing vulnerability of
children and of childhood.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Associate Professor of English
Holy Cross College
Worcester, MA 01610
Telephone (508) 793-2690
I'm glad that my admittedly provocative question has provoked so much
thought! I want to assure those of you who may not know me that I am
neither a naive reader nor a prurient one. Obviously, Nabokov was not a
madman or a pedophile--or, for that matter, a twelve-year-old girl--simply
because he wrote about such beings. Obviously, he was able to
imagine and sympathize with characters who were different than
himself. But isn't it equally obvious that Nabokov, like other writers,
chose to exercise his brilliance on certain recurring themes because he
found them personally meaningful? One such theme--which interested
him for various reasons, of course--is the agonizing vulnerability of
children and of childhood.
Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Associate Professor of English
Holy Cross College
Worcester, MA 01610
Telephone (508) 793-2690