02. Who are we?
Acclaimed novelist Imraan Coovadia will discuss Lolita, one of the most controversial books of 20th Century, at GIPCA’s Great Texts / Big Questions lecture on Thursday 1 April. This free public lecture starts at 5pm at Hiddingh Hall, UCT’s Hiddingh Campus, Orange Street, Cape Town. For more details contact Niek de Greef on (021) 480 7156, niek.degreef@uct.ac.za or www.gipca.uct.ac.za.
Imraan Coovadia is guest speaker at UCT’s Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA)’s Great Text / Big Questions public lecture on Thursday 1 April. He will discuss ‘How to read Lolita‘. This free hour-long lecture is open to the public, UCT staff and students and starts at 17h00 in Hiddingh Hall, on UCT’s Hiddingh Campus, Orange Street, in the heart of Cape Town’s CBD.
Written by Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita was first published in Paris in 1955. It is one of the best-known and most controversial books of 20th Century literature. Coovadia says: “I’ll be talking about the Lolita problem. How do we respond to a book which is a first person narrative by a man who is trying to seduce a 12 year old girl after marrying her mother? Nabokov promises us readers “bliss”? Well, what sort of bliss? Is there a “lesson” in reading Lolita and why has Nabokov described it as the most moral of his novels? Another possible title for my talk is Nabokov’s Butterflies and Playboy Bunnies.”
Imraan Coovadia is an Associate Professor in UCT’s English Department. He has written many stories, essays and book reviews, as well as three novels–The Wedding, Green-Eyed Thieves, and, in 2009, High Low In-Between. Coovadia has worked extensively on Adam Smith, George Eliot, and V.S. Naipaul. He is currently studying the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita.
The Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) was established to enhance the arts within UCT and the broader community, whilst facilitating a broad range of collaborative and interdisciplinary projects. The Great Texts / Big Questions lecture series aims to engender a culture of exchange of ideas, opinion and conjecture. Running throughout March, April, August, September and October, some of the forthcoming 2010 Great Texts / Big Questions lectures include:
1 April – Imraan Coovadia, novelist and English lecturer on ‘How to read Lolita’
8 April – world-acclaimed artist William Kentridge
15 April – linguist Rajend Mesthrie on ‘Syntactic structures: Noam Chomsky and the colourless green revolution in language studies’
22 April – Milton Shain, Director of UCT’s Kaplan Centre on ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’
12 August – Deborah Posel, Director of UCT’s Institute for Humanities in Africa
19 August – Mark Ellyne, economist and Resident Representative in Africa at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
26 August – Coilin Parsons, English lecturer, on ‘James Joyce’s Shorter Masterpiece: The Dead’
For more information on dates and speakers visit www.gipca.uct.ac.za or call Niek de Greef on (021) 480 7156 or e-mail