SOURCE: "Lolita Misrepresented, Lolita Reclaimed: Disclosing the Doubles," in College Literature, Vol. 22, No. 2, June, 1995, pp. 81-104.

In the following essay, Patnoe offers a close reading of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita that endeavors to demonstrated how its title character is an adolescent victim of molestation rather than a young seductress.

There is general agreement, among those professionals who work with adult survivors, that the effects of abuse might show themselves in the form of low self-esteem, lack of assertiveness, depression, and problems in sexual and maternal relationships. However, when we look at the research done on the socialization of women, and the norms set for female behavior (in Western culture) we find that many of the behaviors and "traits" that would be seen to characterize "neurotic" women, such as those listed above, would also be used to prescribe sex-role-appropriate behavior in women. (Jones 76)

Where [the women's movement] is strong, incidence...