Author: Suzanne Fraysse, Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone (Laboratory for Studies and Research on the English-Speaking World), Aix-Marseille Université (Aix-Marseille University)

Abstract: »This paper focuses on the annotated editions of Lolita by Proffer, Appel, Boyd and Couturier to show how annotations constitute a preeminently political field where the issues of authority and legitimacy are constantly rehearsed. Four important functions of annotations will be examined in this perspective:
-First of all, annotated editions grant social legitimacy to a “scandalous” novel at the expense of its subversive erotic force.
-They reproduce the elitist values embodied in a narcissistic pervert in the novel and raise the question of the legitimacy of a practice based not just on cultural prestige but on social domination just as in Lolita a French scholar tries to browbeat an American girl.
-They formulate an “how-to-read” guide to the novel which may protect it from “bad” readers but which may also spoil it by unduly restraining the reader’s freedom.
-They distinguish between the author’s voice and Humbert’s in a way which is crucial for a novel in which the narrator is obnoxious. The analysis focuses on the dynamic interplay by which the images of the author and of the annotator are constructed in the wings.
This paper advocates a return to Bakhtin’s view of intertextuality as a practice respectful of the rights of the author, of the reader, and of all those whose voices ring through the text: this view may liberate reading from all forms of interpretive bullying.« (Source: Miranda)

Contents:

	La légitimation d’une œuvre sulfureuse (p. 2)
	Humbert lecteur modèle ? (p. 5)
	Le contrôle de la réception (p. 7)
	L’autorité de l’auteur (p. 9)
	L’élaboration des ethe (p. 11)
	Bibliographie (p. 14)
	Notes (p. 16)
	Résumés (p. 17)

Wikipedia: History of the Americas: History of the United States | Literature: American literature / Vladimir Nabokov | Literature: Novels about child sexual abuse / Lolita | Sex and the law: Child sexual abuse / Child sexual abuse in the United States