Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita
Text, paratext, and translation release_wmt36kmog5akhfzmgkhrz6skm4

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between text and paratext in the publication history of Vladimir Nabokov's novel <jats:italic>Lolita</jats:italic>. Such paratexts include Nabokov's own afterword to the 1958 American edition and his postscript (published in 1967) to his own translation of <jats:italic>Lolita</jats:italic> into Russian, as well as various introductions and afterwords, both in English-language editions and in translations of <jats:italic>Lolita</jats:italic> into Russian and other languages. A particularly interesting type of paratext is constituted by annotations to the main text, and the analysis focuses on parallel examples published in annotated editions of <jats:italic>Lolita</jats:italic> in English, Russian, Polish, German, Ukrainian, and French. The analysis shows that the most detailed annotations concerning the totality of the English and Russian <jats:italic>Lolita</jats:italic> text and paratexts can be found in editions published in languages other than English and Russian, whereas most English or Russian editions seem to focus on the respective language version. There is still no complete, annotated edition of the bilingual text containing all the authorial paratexts.
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