November 30, 2001

Lolita Causes Pause in a Course on Banned Books

Sarah Wadsworth's class at Carleton College on banned books was running smoothly until it reached Lolita.

For the first month, the students, most of them juniors and seniors, had ready answers for Ms. Wadsworth's questions.

Censoring Uncle Tom's Cabin? Stupid. Banning The Awakening, a book about an extramarital affair? Silly.

But with Lolita, the discussion started getting interesting.

"I had students who had never questioned the limits of free expression before,