La The Responsibility of Fiction. Some Debates Surrounding Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita

Abstract

This article examines the controversy around Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, in two different moments: its first Spanish edition in 1959 by Sur, and its re-readings in the wake of the women’s movement after 2015. Focusing on Argentina but taking into account the transnational dialogue brought out, I reflect on the problems Lolita poses to the established notions of literary autonomy. The article looks at both the question asked by feminists –How does culture legitimize the very sexual order that society is trying to debunk?– and the question thrown at feminists –whether feminisms are willing to promote taboos and moralizations– in order to shed light on the tension between autonomy and relevance. The position of this article is that current reception conditions inhibit strictly literary readings of Lolita and of its circulation.