“Questioning Why Something 'Is,' Tracing Its Genealogy, and Altering

“Questioning Lolita: Genealogy of a Cover Girl SHARI L. SAVAGE

why something The Ohio State University ‘is,’ tracing At the publication of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita its genealogy, (1958), the author insisted that a girl never appear on the cover. This discourse analysis of 185 Lolita book covers, most of which and altering feature a girl, considers the genealogy of "Lolita" in relation to representation, myth, and tacit knowledge construction. How its historical does the content and context of the narrative function to promote and propel erotic girl imagery and reiterate blameworthiness of underpinnings the girl as seducer? Using visual discourse analysis (Rose, 2001) to analyze book cover representations, findings suggest cultural offer relevant understandings of "Lolita" are connected to mythic signifies and popular culture notions of girlhood gone bad. Also described and purposeful and analyzed, a recent book cover contest that asks designers to create a Lolita book cover that does not use a girl. This study classroom encourages art educators and their students to question how inquiry.” culture perpetuates myth, and more specifically, why.

Correspondence regarding this article may be send to the author at [email protected]

156 Savage / Lolita: Genealogy o f a Cover Girl [Lolita] One of my all-time favorites... when I first encountered this edition I assumed our supposed Lolita's pose was flirtatious. One knee bends in front of the other— in almost a curtsy. She seems locked in some sort of stylized sexual demurral. However as tim e passes (and my reading of the text evolves) I begin to factor in the stark, ominous lighting, and the gaze o f the photographer becomes threatening; the pose of the subject is one of real discomfiture. The knee crosses protectively. What seemed to me at first as "come hither" has evolved into "please don't." (Mendelsund, 2011, para. 7)

ike Mendelsund's comment above, than enable the concept of myth; it natu this article brings new light to a ste ralizes it. Indeed, the eroticized girl seen Lreotypical piece of visual culture: so often in popular visual representations the covers of multiple editions of Lolita has been naturalized by contemporary (Nabokov, 1958). Using discourse analy culture (Bordo, 1998,1999; Durham, 2008; sis (Rose, 2001), I considered 185 differ Levin & Kilbourne, 2008; Savage, 2009). ent Lolita covers and an additional 60 This article encourages art educators and images from a book cover design contest their students to question how culture that asked artists and designers to re perpetuates myth, and more specifically, represent the novel. This study, inspired why. and informed by previous research proj Background ects, generates insights into present- day cultural myths in general and the When Russian-born author Vladimir Nabokov first published the controversial novel Lolita genealogy of "Lolita" myths in particular (1958), he insisted there never be a girl featured (Savage, 2009, 2011a, 2011b). As peda on the cover of his book (Vickers, 2008, p. 8). For gogical practice, cultural myths and their Nabokov, 12-year-old Dolores Haze— referred sociohistorical underpinnings are ripe for to as "Lolita" in the novel— was meant to be student inquiry. This article illuminates unveiled slowly. She existed in the margins, her how one novel and its long-misunder voice rarely heard, her image a series of metered stood heroine have come to be repre descriptive phrases that resist coming together sented through mythic visual narratives into a cohesive form (Bouchet, 2005; Shute, of girlhood "gone bad." Challenging and 2003). The reader finds little about Dolores that causes empathy, though she was sexually critiquing such narratives is important, molested starting at age 12. Not relatable, or Barthes (1973) argued, because "we reach even likable, her abuse has been somehow less here the very principle of myth: it trans important to the story than her blameworthi forms history into nature" (p. 129). This ness (Bayma & Fine, 1996; Bordo, 2003; Savage, transformation, he suggested, does more 2011a). Nabokov argued that a girl should never

Studies in Art Education / Volume 56, No. 2 157 appear on the cover of his book, but his edict gerous (APA, 2007; Durham, 2008; Kilbourne, was ignored.This study of 185 Lolita book covers' 1999, 2006). As Walkerdine (1997) reminded us: published between 1958 and 2011 makes clear "images cannot say'no'" (p. 166). that publishers disregard of the author's request Visual Methodologies has continued to sell the mythic version of Lolita This study used both genealogy research and her bad-girl reputation. and discourse analysis to consider covers of the A book cover, originally used to protect the book Lolita. Genealogy research refers to inquiry delicate pages, is most often used today to that examines the ways in which interpreting advertise paperback novels that are quickly and evaluating subjects changes over time, bought, read, and often as quickly recycled. including the social systems of thought and Covers attract attention, indicate the book's the historical factors that influence how sub contents, and—most important in our fast- jects are constituted (Schwandt, 2007, p. 125). paced world— do so in an expedient manner. Schwandt explained that genealogy's purpose The original European printing of Lolita (1955), "is to disturb the taken-for-granted and alleg from Parisian publisher Olympia Press, carried edly self-evident character of our interpreta no image and was a two-volume set (Appel & tions of'subjects'as, for example, men, women, Newman, 1970). What the plain green cover did boys, girls, criminals, adolescents, and so on" do, however, was alert United States Customs (p. 125). Patnoe (1995) asked, "why didn't the agents to its pornographic content as Olympia's Lolita myth evolve in a way that more accurately Green Traveler series was well known as books reflects Nabokov's Lolita? Why isn't the definition with salient themes (Appel, 1991). Since the of'Lolita"a molested adolescent girl'instead of American publication of Lolita in 1958, the a 'seductive' one?" (p. 83). Genealogy and dis majority of Lolita book covers have used eroti course analysis assist in locating pivotal shifts in cized imagery to represent the same salient Lolita mythmaking. themes, often highlighting Lolita's blamewor thiness (Savage, 2009). Lolita-like or eroticized Foucault argued that discourses are prac girl representations in media have been preva tices "composed of ideas, ideologies, attitudes, lent and have articulated a narrative about courses of action, terms of reference, that sys sexuality that can be harmful (APA, 2007; Levin & tematically constitute the subjects and objects of Kilbourne, 2008; Savage, 2009). Durham (2008) which they speak" (as cited in Schwandt, 2007, p. agreed: 73). Discourse analysis, when connected to visu- Myths are, by nature, untrue. But ality rather than language, explores "how images myths cannot be dismissed as fictions construct specific views of the social world" or fairy tales, because they have real (Rose, 2001, p. 140). Tonkiss (1998) took this idea impact on girls' lives. When sexuality further, in that discourse analysis is more con is understood only in terms of cultural cerned with "how images construct accounts of and social myths that operate in ways the social world" (as cited in Rose, 2001, p. 140). that are counterprogressive, hidebound, Genealogy is part of the inquiry of determining and restrictive, we have a problem. It is how images construct views and accounts of our imperative, therefore, to examine myths. social world or culture. I used Rose's framework (p. 60) for discourse analysis and visual culture from her As art educators, we share a commitment to 2001 book, Visual Methodologies, for this study. challenge sociocultural ideologies that oppress, Discourse analysis considers texts (both lan marginalize, or otherwise objectify. A culture guage and images), intertextuality, and contexts, that regularly sexualizes girls and then assigns and interrogates the way images and verbal texts blame to them for their desirability is dan produce discursive formations. Multiple repre-

158 Savage / Lolita: Genealogy of a Cover Girl sentations of Lolita on book covers have served that Lolita, as understood in popular visual as a discourse through which meaning has been culture, is socially constructed by mythic signi- articulated. fiers derived from the original novel— a cultural A thorough understanding of the novel is development with contextual tentacles embed necessary in order to identify referents, meta ded in invention, illusion, and lore (Danesi, 2007; phors, and other significant thematic threads. Hall, 2003). Lolita (Dolores Haze) is a fictional girl; Critical literary analyses from 1956 forward assist understood through inaccuracy, misinterpreta in illuminating the ways in which Lolita (1958) tion, and fantasy, thereby producing a cultural has been understood and questioned through representation with mythic attributes that are history, including the earliest book reviews then projected onto real girls. It is the "blame (Hicks, 1958; Hollander, 1956; Trilling, 1958). worthiness" of her reputation that has made this Feminist analyses have offered additional layers particular cultural myth dangerous. Feminist of inquiry— critical and unapologetic interroga analyses of Lolita (1958) and Lolita-like represen tions of the early, and mostly male, reviews that tations of eroticized girls in media have pointed heaped blame on Lolita and negated her abuse out the "blame the victim" mentality prevalent (Bordo, 1998; 1999; McCracken, 2001; Merskin, in our culture (APA, 2007; Bordo, 2003; Durham, 2004; Patnoe, 1995; Shelton; 1999; Shute, 2003; 2008; Kilbourne, 2006; Patnoe, 1995; Savage, Wood, 2003). Bayma and Fine's (1996) survey and 2009,2011 a; Wray & Steele, 2001). analyses of early Lolita book reviews found that Two Lolitas: The Unknowing and authoritative judgments about Dolores/Lolita Knowing Girl "live on today in the stereotype that the review Two kinds of Lolitas have been present in ers' Lolita has herself subsequently become" (p. popular and visual culture texts. The first has 174). The image of the bad girl "belongs to a been a passive, prepubescent, seemingly inno cultural schema of beliefs and attitudes"(p. 173), cent girl unaware of her desirability. The sexually thereby contextualizing Lolita as deserving of aggressive pubescent girl aware of her desirabil her plight. ity has been the other (Kilbourne, 2006; Merskin, Rose (2001) described discourse analysis as 2004; Savage, 2009). Dolores (also called Dolly being flexible, which encourages intertextuality and Lo)—the 12-year-old prepubescent girl in data analysis (p. 154). She suggested immers whose stepfather, Humbert, desired— is rep ing yourself in the data, identifying key themes, resentative of the unknowing girl. Lolita was examining complexities and contradictions, and the name Humbert used to denote the mythic paying attention to what is visible and invisible embodiment of Dolores; this is representative of (p. 158). In this way, discourse analysis is similar the knowing girl. Each archetype has had specific to myth analysis, a process of unpacking a myth visual codes that tell viewers about these dichot to find the underlying contributors to a set of omous types, and Lolita book covers uphold the beliefs or values. The myth of Lolita has been duality of these two representations. This is not circulated in modern cultural contexts through to say females, young or otherwise, are devoid media and has developed into an international of sexual agency or do not want to be desired; phenomenon (Durham; 2008; Levin & Kilbourne, rather, I refer only to how Lolita has been 2008). depicted, in general, on book covers. Critical to Book covers in this study came from numer Lolita's myth building has been the idea that ous countries, and I did not make distinctions Humbert pursued, obsessed over, and desired between cultures; rather, I considered the non- the unknowing Dolores (Lolita), and then deni linguistic visual images. In this article, I begin grated and blamed her once she was sexually my analysis of Lolita book covers by describing aware and developed her own agency (Durham, specific signifies and mythic signposts. I posit 2008; Savage, 2011a).

Studies in Art Education / Volume 56, No. 2 159 Of the 185 Lolita covers analyzed, more than (1958) that did not use a girl, thereby following 92 featured a young girl. Eroticized cover girls Nabokov's original decree (Bertram, 2012). appeared as early as 1962, the first nude girl Representing the Relationship as early as 1964. Although Nabokov described The image of a girl on Lolita book covers Dolores as having auburn brown hair, book cover Lolitas have been predominately blonde. visually privileges the girl and draws readers Fragments of a girl's body were common— away from the central focus of the novel: a eyes, lips, and legs being the most common. middle-aged man (Humbert) who self-identifies Legs ending in saddle shoes and white, folded- as a pedophile telling his confessional story. over socks were popular as well, like the image So, when choosing to use both characters on seen on the American-published Vintage Books a book cover, how is the narrative of the story Lolita cover (1997). Common signifiers of girl depicted? Which signifiers are employed and hood included pigtails, braids, and Mary Jane how are Lolita myths retold? What might viewers shoes. Several covers employed oral fixations believe about what's between the covers? Using such as fingers in mouth, lipstick, and lollipops. discourse analysis, three of the nine covers that References to school uniforms or short, plaid included a man are described below and are skirts were often used when the torso of the representative of different types of relationships girl was cut off at the waist (in the classic up- depicted— power, protector, and predator. the-skirt viewpoint). If the girl was depicted as Lolita book cover I 2 features a charcoal seductive, she gazed at the viewer and her body drawing with yellow pastel overlay. LOLITA in posturing was sexual. If the girl was depicted as uppercase text fills % of the top right of the rect passive, she stared blankly elsewhere or she was angle-shaped cover. The author's name, spelled partially presented (body parts). Over 22 covers Wladimir Nabokof, is listed below. The entire used film stills from either the 1962 (Kubrick) or length of the left side of the cover is filled with 1997 (Lyne) Lolita movie versions. Only 29 of 185 the sketch of a suited man, one leg and shoe, covers depicted Lolita as post-prepubescent or an arm, and a hand clutching a fedora. He is womanly—and many times, the older version bisected in half by the bound edge, and cut off of Lolita was nude or partially nude. Even more at the shoulders. No head is visible. On the right rare, just nine of 185 covers depicted a girl and a side of the rectangle, central but much smaller, man together. is a kneeling girl in a bikini, hands crossed and In analyzing Lolita book covers, a particular placed passively upon her thighs. She looks narrative emerged: a narrative that fit the frame warily up and over at the towering suited figure. work of tacit understandings about the novel's The power relationship is clear in the com content. Humbert himself could have assisted position of the two figures. The choice to depict in developing a template for Lolita book covers, Humbert as partial, headless, and unseen is considering the fragmented body parts—the typical of most covers featuring men. Besides obsessions with legs, knees, white socks, and the girl's size, her youth is also signified by her schoolgirl skirts about which he liked to write. flat chest and submissive body positioning. The Such depictions have centered on eroticizing image does not readily connote a sexual rela girls by using innocence and youth as markers for tionship in that this man could be read as any desire (Durham, 2008; Levin & Kilbourne, 2008; number of authority figures. Only a tacit under Merskin, 2004; Savage, 2009). For this article, I standing of the story would connote a sexual focus on two specific categories: (1) a selection relationship. of covers that included an image or reference to Lolita book cover 23 stands in remarkable a male and a female, the rarest of cover depic contrast to the previously described cover. tions; and (2) a recent contest inviting artists Reminiscent of a 1950s Rock Hudson and Doris and designers to create book covers for Lolita Day movie poster, this illustrated cover features

160 Savage / Lolita: Genealogy of a Cover Girl a suited man embracing a smiling woman who if she is indeed sufficiently drugged. Her body gazes adoringly at his face, her hands fixing his position is described in a remarkably similar red tie. Her short, coiffed hair is blonde, eyes and fashion to the cover. The teddy bear signifies lips heavily made up. The relationship is one of childhood innocence and its detailed represen mutual attraction and age. The title is in bright tation is important in relaying the message. For yellow font, outlined in black, dancing happily those who do not know the content and context across the female's collarbone, bisecting the of Lolita, the cover can be read as depicting a couple. The connotation reads of a normal child's nightmare or a monster. Those who are relationship, age appropriate, and a seemingly aware of the content know that this interpreta happy story resides within. Lolita loves Humbert tion is also true. in this representation—yet he confesses in the Covers that include reference to a man are book that she never loved him. Furthermore, unusual in their small numbers, but also unusual womanly bodies repulse Humbert, as he in that they either allude to the man as protec explains vividly in this passage from the novel: "There are few physiques I loathe more than the tor or predator. How the relationship is read is heavy low-slung pelvis, thick calves and deplor dependent on the how much the viewer knows able complexion of the average coed (in whom about the story within. For those who know I see, maybe, the coffin of coarse female flesh the story well, some of the man/girl covers are within which my nymphets are buried alive)" disturbingly close to the narrative. Others are (Nabokov, 1958, p. 175). laughably offtrack. In the overall scope of 185 Lolita book cover 34 contains a more sinis covers, few acknowledge the predatory nature ter interpretation of the story. An abstracted of Humbert's quest to sexually molest his representation, but figural: This cover features 12-year-old stepdaughter. Instead, the majority a painted image of a young, auburn-haired of Lolita book covers trade on and perpetuate girl sleeping on a single bed. Wearing a short, the myth of the sexually precocious or seductive pink dress, she clutches a brown teddy bear nymphet to attract readers. This suggests that in the crook of her left arm and sleeps legs including a man on the cover is too illustrative akimbo. To her left, a looming brown shadow- of an abuse of power, and that Lolita might be man encroaches; an oversized, daw-like hand seen as less blameworthy. This is not a cultural reaches across her body, centered directly over myth that sells. the apex of her legs. The image is placed on the But what if publishers and cover designers upper half of a white foreground. The bottom honored Nabokov's edict to not use a girl on the half o f the cover features the author's name in cover of Lolita? Could a Lolita book cover relate black, the title directly beneath in German— not the narrative without a girl, or girl and man? Lolita, but The Enchanter.5 John Bertram—a Nabokov aficionado, architect, The image is disturbing and foreboding. and blogger—wondered the same thing, and in Humbert is less man and more monster. The 2009, sent out a call to create a Lolita book cover connotation is clear: The girl is unaware and that did not use a girl, man, or woman in ways the intruder is preying upon her. Neither char previous covers had. acter has a face. The most detailed part of the painting is the teddy bear. The image refers to a The Lolita Book Cover Contest pivotal scene in the novel in which Humbert has Over 105 entrants representing 34 countries drugged Dolores/Lolita in a hotel room (at The submitted 155 Lolita book cover designs6 to Enchanted Hunters Hotel) and is planning on Bertram. A selection of 60 designs became the raping her while unconscious (Nabokov, 1958, subject of a book edited by Bertram and Leving pp. 128-134). He hovers over her, waiting to see (2013). One of the designers, Peter Mendelsund,

Studies in Art Education i Volume 56, No. 2 161 explained the difficulty of designing a book angles and finish the bottom third of the cover. jacket: A white upside down triangle sits just below the We've taken on the task of representing plaid rectangle and between the flesh-colored the text, rather than just adorning it, we shapes, turning the shapes into a schoolgirl designers must determine, must we not, whose white cotton panties are showing. Using what a book is about before we design simple shapes and materials, Ang manages to a jacket for it? I find, when I'm reading a construct the classic schoolgirl signifier. manuscript, I'm constantly on the lookout Adonis Durado fills his book cover with a for images, characters, ideas that can photographic close-up of skin. The top third of serve, metaphorically, as proxies for the the cover is pale pink unblemished skin pressed whole. But the question is constantly up against darker, hair-covered skin, which fills emerging in my mind: is this "whole" the the bottom two-thirds of the cover. The photo narrative itself, in its literal details, or the graphic close-up is so detailed that each follicle thing(s) the narrative is driving towards its is visible as black hair curls out of the skin. In the greater underlying significance? Which is to say: is it our job, in the case of Lolita, to dark shadowy space that demarcates the two represent "the central sexual relationship bodies, the word Lolita is written in white cursive between a young girl and an older man;" lowercase text. Durado's composition is disturb or are we being asked to delve deeper? ingly intimate and unflinchingly to-the-point. The answer to this question turns out Cover designer Jamie Keegan's entry is as to be more complex than one would simple in composition as it is mind-blowing. imagine. (Mendelsund, 2011, para. 13) A photograph of the corner of a room, walls Indeed, the entries submitted to Bertram's painted pale pink, is taken from below so that call resorted to myriad signifiers in an attempt to the white crown molding and white ceiling capture an elusive and reluctant subject through makes a "V" into the pink walls. What is at first imagery that is not a girl, man, or woman—at the corner of a pink room suddenly morphs least not in any easily recognizable way. Instead, into white cotton panties and pale pink legs; artists and designers played with shapes, colors, the shadowed corner of the two walls meeting material objects, text, and even optical illusion becomes the legs pressed together. Once the to suggest a possible narrative for Nabokov's viewer has made this discovery, the angle Lolita. Described briefly and analyzed below, the becomes suggestive of what one might see if following four examples are significant for their lying down on a bed and staring at the ceiling— unique take on representing Lolita. chilling and visually brilliant. Here again, previ Cover designer Barbara DeWilde uses a black ous understanding of the novel's content assists background, the name Lolita spelled out in part in the interpretation. with a flat, cuffed white bobby sock placed in the Bertram's contest produced a variety of ways shape of an"L."The second letter,"o,"is made with to imply or suggest what the book Lolita might the other matching sock, rolled into a circle.The be about without the typical eroticized girl rep remaining letters are plain white text. Nabokov resentation. It is the "aboutness," however, that uses socks, especially white bobby socks, fuels what is implied. A tacit understanding of throughout the novel to remind the reader of the book Lolita, if brought to the cover images, the childishness of Humbert's paramour. certainly helps in ferreting out the narrative Suzene Ang uses shapes to fill the entire book being represented. What is most surprising cover. The top third of the cover is a horizontal is how remarkably the contest cover design rectangle of grey and red plaid. Two vertical rect ers captured the dark and secretive essence of angles in flesh color make up the middle third. Lolita's more difficult themes. Using many of White vertical rectangles overlay the flesh rect the same details Humbert wrote about when

162 Savage / Lolita: Genealogy of a Cover Girl obsessing over his stepdaughter, cover design 14, was enlisted to pose. Vintage had sent over ers employed referents that suggest childhood, some props: a pair of saddle shoes, white socks, girlhood, sex, and eroticism, with an inherent and a short pleated wool skirt. Gross explained: creepiness or danger that lingers. Missing from We tried socks on, socks off, shoes on, contest designs was the precocious girl-child shoes off, crossed legs, uncrossed legs. I seductress. Instead, designers focused on the remember she (Gentl) looked at some of disturbing tension that comes from eroticizing the proofs and had picked out a few that innocence juxtaposed with the hushed knowl she liked (no shoes), but sent all of them edge that something is very wrong here. to the editor (Megan Wilson). They did When comparing contest designs with not pick any of her favorites. When the already-published Lolita covers, girlhood is rep book came out I was so excited. I had a resented through similar cultural signposts: faint idea of what it was about (old man, schoolgirl signifies like plaid uniforms, pink young girl), but really, it was just cool to be able to say that was me— and still is. I hair scrunchies, and Mary Jane shoes; youth started reading the book at one point, but ful reminders like bobby socks, white cotton never finished, (personal communication, panties, and pale unblemished skin. If the novel October 16,2007) title, Lolita, was removed from the covers, many I recently crossed paths with Gross profes of the design images would fail to convey much sionally (now Dr. Gross-Balk) and mentioned about what might be found inside the pages. that I was researching Lolita book covers and Most of the cultural myth has been so well estab shared that designer Mendelsund considered lished that the word "Lolita" already brings a her cover image a favorite. I explained that his loaded set of signifiers with it—as Patnoe (1995) interpretation of the image has shifted from reminded us when she asked why the name reading her pose as flirtatious to now seeing her "Lolita" does not refer to a sexually molested pose as protective. I sent her a copy of his quote girl. In this way, the images on Lolita book covers and asked her to reflect on her cover image and have rarely reflected the novel's content accu his words: rately. Instead, myth-based representations of Lolita have continued to further blame the girl It's amazing to me how much and erase her victimization. discussion can arise from production to interpretation. As the subject of the cover A "Real" Cover Girl Speaks for the Vintage edition, I was too young A few years ago, I spoke to a group of gradu to know to ask what my friend Andrea ate students about my research. As I left the was thinking about when she shot the classroom, a student came out into the hall to photos in her Soho studio that warm day speak with me. She related that it was her legs in July.The photo chosen wasn't even one pictured on my copy of Lolita, the same cover of her favorites, as I recall. But looking at I referenced to begin this article. Intrigued, I it with a critical eye 15 years later, and asked her to e-mail me with all the details about considering Mendelsund's analysis, I am struck more by the mystery that the how she came to be the knock-kneed girl on my absence of hands evokes for me. I had to dog-eared copy of Lolita. A few days later she get a manicure that day because some came through as promised. of the shots would show my hands. But She was visiting Andrea Gentl, a family friend maybe Wilson's intention in selecting this in New York, who happens to be a professional specific photo was to leave the viewer photographer. Gentl had just been hired by wondering. The "curtsy" that Mendelsund Vintage Books to supply a black and white references would likely have been paired image for their edition of Lolita. Mara Gross, then with hands pinching at the sides of her

Studies in Art Education / Volume 56, No. 2 163 skirt. Hands atop thighs with bent knees that her body position tells us which path might more clearly suggest the flirtatious is the one she plans to travel, or how pose that Mendelsund supposed initially. the two-dimensional body on the cover But I can't make the jum p to "come hither" translates to the body alive in the story. or "please don't" without more kinesthetic Having only started and never finished information. the novel, I can't make connections To this kinesethetically driven viewer, the between cover and text. But from what I cover suggests a curiosity—almost as if do know about Lolita, the ambiguity I'm the figure is sitting on a swing that could suggesting over which direction the girl move toward or away from whatever is in the photo is going to swing might draw approaching her. All it would take is a little some parallels to the conflict surrounding push in the "right" direction. If her hands the story itself. (Mara Gross-Balk, personal were visible, the view might have a better communication, June 10,2013) sense of momentum. But I don't believe Reflecting on her image, Gross-Balk mirrored Mendelsund when interpreting the details, the visible, the invisible, and the unknowable. The narrative itself informed Mendelsund, but it was about embodiment for Gross-Balk. She was present in a way none of us can be (it was her body being consumed) and yet, she has "seen" the girl as somewhat separate from herself. Reading both Gross-Balk's and Mendelsund's words as they revisit a familiar image reminds me of another detailed interpretation of Lolita's body, one Humbert wrote about in his diary: "Why does the way she walks— a child, mind you, a mere child!— excite me so abominably? Analyze it. A faint suggestion of turned in toes. A kind of wiggly looseness below the knee" (Nabokov, 1958, p. 41). Gentl, Gross-Balk, Mendelsund, and cover designer Wilson saw particular gestures in Vintage Book's Lolita cover, their collective inter pretations bringing Humbert's description of Dolores into view in new ways— proving that even a partial Lolita reveals significant clues about her story. Worth noting, also, is that this combination of bare legs shot from below is seen on 15 covers, four in an almost exact replica of Wilson's eventual cover selection. Figure 1, a photograph of Gross-Balk 15 years later, was taken by Emily Rush and brings the image full circle. Lolita book covers employ innumerable nar Dr. Mara Gross-Balk, now an adult, poses with the Lolita cover she was featured on at age 14. Photo ratives, many of which are challenging for me to credit: Emily Rush. view, too, without shifting emotions, new under-

164 Savage / Lolita: Genealogy of a Cover Girl standings, and continuing questioning about something "is," tracing its genealogy, and alter this girl and her story. As a mother, daughter, ing its historical underpinnings offer relevant and art educator, I am angered by Lolita book and purposeful classroom inquiry. Lolita (1958) covers that sexualize or invite an erotic reading. may not be a suitable topic for some classrooms, Covers that portray a love story anger me, too. but the genre she represents is suitable for ques Those that suggest the more disturbing context tioning. Book covers can be used to challenge of Lolita may be more truthful, in my opinion, gendered depictions. Students can be asked to but depictions such as these are still difficult visually create counter narratives and to think to see. I wish Lolita existed only in the mind's about how designers use a novel's content to eye, as Nabokov intended. Or that our culture promote and convey a message, to consider for recalled she was a 12-year-old and named themselves how they could approach a cover Dolores. Even then, I sometimes wish she did design. Furthermore, good visual descriptions of not exist at all. But the myth of Lolita does exist, the contents of a book or short story are clear having left Nabokov's pages and climbed up evidence of a student's reading comprehension. into the cultural milieu as a marker for girlhood Art education is enriched by the opportunity gone bad—the blameworthy Lolita—while men to use discourse analysis techniques— not only who molest children are rarely referred to as with book covers, but also with other images Humberts (Patnoe, 1995; Savage, 2009). and/or groups of objects that have acquired Despite a genealogy that disputes tacit mythic status: understandings of Lolita, as long as her myth Myth deprives the object of which laden story continues to be represented though it speaks of all History. In it, history eroticized images of girl as seducer—the main evaporates. It is a kind of ideal servant: stay of Lolita book covers— it remains unlikely it prepares all things, brings them, lays her reputation will ever be repaired. Bertram's them out, the master arrives, it silently call to designers, however, serves to remind disappears: all that is left for one to do art educators that we, too, are in the business is enjoy this beautiful object without of investigating new ways to approach mythic wondering where it comes from. (Barthes, genres, ideologies, and value systems that 1973, p. 151) inform and influence culture. Questioning why

REFERENCES American Psychological Association (APA). (2007, February). Report of the APA task force on the sexualization of girls. Retrieved from www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html Appel, A„ Jr. (1991). Introduction and annotation. In V. Nabokov, Lolita (pp. xi-lxvii). New York, NY: Vintage Books. Appel, A., Jr., & Newman, C. (Eds.). (1970). Nabokov: Criticism, reminiscences, translations and tributes. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Barthes, R. (1973). Mythologies. London, England: Paladin Books. Bayma.T., &Fine, G. (1996). Fictional figures and imaginary relations: The transformation of Lolita from victim to vixen. Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 2 0 ,165-178. Bertram, J. (2012, March 8). Lolita: Story of a cover girl [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://venusfebriculosa. com?/p=905 Bertram, J., & Leving, Y. (Ed.). (2013). Lolita: The story o f a cover girl: Vladimir Nabokov's novel in art and design. Blue Ash, OH: Print Books. Bordo, S. (1998). True obsessions: Being faithful to "Lolita." Chronicle o f Higher Education, 44(4), 7-11.

Studies in Art Education t Volume 56, No. 2 165 Bordo, S. (1999). Humbert and Lolita. In S. Bordo (Ed.), The male body: A new look at men in public and in private (pp. 299-347). New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Bordo, S. (2003). Never just pictures. In A. Jones (Ed.), The feminism visual culture reader (pp. 454-463). London, England: Routledge. Bouchet, M. (2005). The details of desire: From Dolores on the dotted line to dotted Dolores. Nabokov Studies, 9, 101-114. Danesi, M. (2007). The quest for meaning: A guide to semiotic theory and practice. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. Durham, M. G. (2008). The Lolita effect: The media sexuatization of young girls and what we can do about it. New York, NY: The Overlook Press. Hall, S. (2003). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices. London, England: Sage. Hicks, G. (1958, August 16). Lolita and her problems [Review of the book Lolita]. Saturday Review, 4 1,12,38. Hollander, J. (1956).The perilous magic of nymphets. Partisan Review, 23,557-560. Kilbourne, J. (2006). Can't buy my love: How advertising changes the way we think and feel. New York, NY: Touchstone. Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2008). So sexy, so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. McCracken, T. (2001). Lolita talks back: Giving voice to the object. In M. Howe & S. Appleton Aguiar (Eds.), He said, she says...: An RSVP to the male text (pp. 128-139). Madison, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press. Mendelsund, P. (2011, November 1). Jacket mechanical [Web blog post]. Retrieved from http://jacketmechanical. blogspot.com/2011/11/1 -fictions.html Merskin, D. (2004). Reviving Lolita? American Behavioral Scientist, 48(1), 119-129. Nabokov, V. (1958). Lolita. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Patnoe, E. (1995). Lolita misrepresented, Lolita reclaimed: Disclosing the doubles. College Literature, 22(2), 81-104. Rose, G. (2001). Visual Methodologies. London, England: Sage. Savage, S. L. (2009). Lolita myths and the normalization o f eroticized girls in popular visual culture: The object and the researcher talk back (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from Dissertation Abstracts International, 70(07), 310A. (UMI No. 3367890) Savage, S. L. (201 la).The visual rhetoric of innocence: Lolitas in popular culture. In Girl Power, special edition of Visual Arts Research Journal, 37(2), 101-112. Savage, S. L. (2011b). The secret diary of Dolores Haze: Lolita as re(a)d. Visual Culture and Gender Journal, 6, 7-14. Schwandt, T. (2007). The Sage dictionary of qualitative inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Shelton, J. (1999). "The word is incest": Sexual and linguistic coercion in Lolita. Textual Practice, 13(2), 273-294. Shute, J. (2003). So nakedly dressed:The text of the female body in Nabokov's novels. E. Pifer (Ed.), Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita: A casebook (pp. 111-120). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Trilling, L. (1958). The last lover: Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Encounter, 4 ,9-19. Walkerdine, V. (1997). Daddy's girl: Young girls and popular culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wood, M. (2003). Revisiting Lolita. In E. Pifer (Ed.), Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. A casebook (pp. 181-194). New York, NY: Oxford Press. Wray, J„ & Steele, J. R. (2001). Girls in print: Figuring out what it means to be a girl. In J. D. Brown, J. R. Steele & K. Walsh-Childers (Eds.), Sexual teens, sexual media (pp. 191-208). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Vickers, G. (2008). Chasing Lolita: How popular culture corrupted Nabokov's little girl all over again. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press.

166 Savage / Lolita: Genealogy of a Cover Girl ENDNOTES 1 Book covers can be viewed at www.dezimmer.net/Covering%20Lolita/LoCov.html 2 (1958). (M. Coutinho, Trans.). (P. A. H. van der Harst, jacket design). The Hague, The Netherlands: Oisterwijk. Information on Lolita book covers were taken from Dieter Zimmer's collection list (www.dezimmer.net/ Covering%20Lolita/coverlist-en.htm, 2014), and included the date of publication, publisher, country of origin, translation, jacket designer, and ISBN number— if known. 3 (1959). Istanbul, Turkey: Aydin Yayinevi. 4 [(1987). DerZauberer (The Enchanter). (Dieter E. Zimmer, Trans.). (Britta Lembke, Cover illustration.). Federal Republic of Germany: Rowohlt, Reinbek. ISBN 3-498-04629-2] 5 The Enchanter was an alternate title once used when Nabokov first attempted publication. Some European versions have used this title instead of Lolita (Appel, 1991). 6 John Bertram's call for redesigned versions o f Lolita covers can be viewed at www.printmag.com/illustration/ recovering-lolita

Studies in Art Education t Volume 56, No. 2 167 Copyright of Studies in Art Education is the property of National Art Education Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.