Reading Lolita in the Classroom

Abstract

Herner Saeverot’s engagement with Richard Rorty and Vladimir Nabokov on the topic of moral education brings an illuminating perspective to the use of literature and art in classrooms. There is much to value and reflect on in Saeverot’s nuanced discussion, especially his emphasis on the unexpected as an educative phenomenon and the space he opens for consideration of the educator’s role in the encounter between reader and text. So I begin with a qualified endorsement of the essay’s central claim that moral education is inherently a matter of contingency. That being said, my primary aim here is to develop two considerations that render that endorsement “qualified.” The first concerns an interpretation, overlooked by Rorty and Saeverot, of Nabokov’s view of the relationship between the four essential qualities of art. Tracing the implication of this interpretation, I suggest a more robust role for educators seeking to draw on literature in the service of moral education.