Nothing to LOL(ita) About

Photo credit: Tess Wayland

The edition of Lolita students are reading in the “Literature and Censorship” class.

One of Laufer’s goals for the class is to learn about society through what society deems inappropriate. This year, Laufer included in his curriculum the book “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov. 

In the novel “Lolita,” the middle-aged pedophile Humbert Humbert obsesses over 12-year-old Dolores Haze, whom he calls Lolita. “Lolita,” tells the story of their relationship, and soon after being published became known as a classic. The depiction of pedophilia and the inappropriate sexual relationship has made “Lolita” a controversial book.

“In a Literature and Censorship Course, if you are not reading banned books, I do not really know what you are doing,” senior Ashley Golden, a student in the course, said. 

“Lolita” has been a part of the Parker curriculum for many years, with the exception of the abridged COVID-19 curriculum. Laufer first taught the book at Parker in 2010. Laufer believes that schools like Parker are able to handle the responsibility of teaching “Lolita.” “If it is going to be taught in high school, it would be in a progressive school and independent school that has a little more latitude, a little more courage,” Laufer said. 

One element that makes reading “Lolita” difficult is that despite the sexual context of the book, it is written with “beautiful” language. “The incredible richness, and literariness, and poeticisms of the language, the inventiveness, the experimental nature of it, the artfulness of it,” Laufer said, “It is one of the most exquisite works of art that I know.”

“A lot of the students found it hard to read—because his language is beautiful, but the content is vulgar,” Upper School English Teacher Cory Zeller, who has previously taught “Lolita,” said, “so you can actually be sort of mesmerized by the language.”

Golden had the experience that Zeller previously observed. “I enjoyed reading the book, but I did not enjoy actually reading the text,” Golden said. “It is a very visceral experience to read, and if I were in charge of the book list I would keep it on there.”

While reading “Lolita,” the Literature and Censorship class has embarked on uncomfortable conversations. “It leads to certain tensions of human nature, psychology, art, that I think are really rich and important to explore together with support from each other,” Laufer said. 

Before the conversations occur, Laufer foregrounds the conversation through trigger warnings, multiple materials, and background. He tries to best prepare his students for the discomfort that this novel provides. 

“I think Mr. Laufer does a good job because he starts the conversation with ‘hey, this is uncomfortable, but there is a lot to be learned about “Lolita” and from the uncomfortableness,’” senior Jackson Antonow, a student in the Literature and Censorship Course, said. 

Agreeing with Antonow, Golden believes that the conversations before reading contribute to a healthy class environment. “It can be very triggering for people who went through stuff like that, but it is approached in a healthy enough manner that, even though it triggers stuff for me, it is not to the point that I do not feel comfortable in the classroom,” Golden said.

Zeller approached the conversations in a similar way. “If you spend time at the beginning, really talking about narrative and the perspective that we’re getting,” Zeller said, “it sets up those later conversations to be more dynamic and fruitful.”

One of the tough conversations that the class has had surrounding “Lolita,” are the implications of calling the book obscene. “We tried to push back against students describing the novel as obscene, but not moving towards clarity on a difference, potentially, between the obscenity of the character’s actions,” Laufer said, “and the idea of calling a novel obscene and thereby labeling it in a such a way as to insist it not be taught.”

Golden believes that varying views on obscenity led to a divide in the classroom. “There is a group of people who are very critical of the book and from the way it seems, believe that book should not have been made or that it is obscene, and we should not be reading it,” Golden said. “But then there are some people in the class who are like, the book is not meant to be a positive experience. It is supposed to make you think and ask these questions.” 

Antonow agrees with Golden that there were classroom tensions when they first dove into the text. “Tensions subsided as we got into the book more and looked at and understood different things that were happening,” Antonow said.

In addition to conversations, students in Laufer’s class dove into the text through writing assignments, one of which was to craft a thesis, an antithesis, and then synthesize the two together in a third paragraph. “I think it’s relevant to a novel like ‘Lolita’ where there are these tensions and where students perhaps have ambivalences, or at least the text has ambivalences,” Laufer said. “The three-paragraph essay is designed to float these tensions.”

Laufer has also asked students to imitate Nabakov’s writing style through sentences with the same structure, but on taboo topics of their choosing. “He has a very unique and weird way of writing, so we try to get into his head, which for this subject is kind of a weird place to be,” senior Sammi Coleman, a student in the Literature and Censorship Course, said. “I think that was sort of the point is in this book is to sort of be uncomfortable, and to be okay with being uncomfortable.”

Zeller believes that teaching “Lolita” as a great world novel—a novel that has influenced the world at large through language and meaning—such feels wrong, but that it belongs in a Literature and Censorship class. “In a censorship course, I’m able to bring in that this is censored for a reason,” Zeller said. “And the way that it lands on a female is different than how it might land on a male.” Zeller stated that the novel’s status of being great does not mean that it is not a problematic text. 

According to Laufer, banned books in classrooms also acknowledge “the existence of unpopular views and unpopular styles and unpopular writing.” These views are often silenced by either individuals with power or the author themselves. “In a progressive school, anywhere that I would teach, we have to question that and think about whether that is right, good, and useful for society and for individuals,” Laufer said. 

“There is awareness from all parties involved of what could be troubling or concerning about it,” Coleman said, “It is a good place for it to be as long as it’s thoughtfully talked and thought through, in terms of who’s who it’s being taught to, by whom, and  any biases put into place.”