Nabokov, Vladimir - Brandon S. Centerwall (essay date 1990)

Brandon S. Centerwall (essay date 1990)

SOURCE: “Hiding in Plain Sight: Nabokov and Pedophilia,” in Texas Studies in Literature and Language, Vol. 32, No. 3, Fall, 1990, pp. 468-84.

[In the following essay, Centerwall argues that Nabokov sublimated his own unacted-upon pedophilia in the composition of Lolita.]

It is thirty years since Lolita hit No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list, an opportune moment to consider that most heretical of questions, was Vladimir Nabokov a closet pedophile? Heretical, because it is an article of faith among Nabokovians, carefully nurtured by the Master himself, that he was most assuredly not a pedophile, closet or otherwise. Popular dogma notwithstanding, there are adequate grounds for concluding that he was, as this essay will demonstrate. More than a mere intrusion into an author's private sexuality, at stake is the very meaning of Lolita. For however vehemently my thesis...

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