Hi! I’m working on a proposal for my BA dissertation and my plan is to explore the depiction of female teenage sexuality in literature. However, my only idea for a novel is Nabokov’s Lolita… does anyone have any recommendations that deal with similar topics? Preferably published post-1900s as I want to restrict it to 20th century literature. Thank you!
by txnishaa
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the lover by marguerite duras
*The Diary of a Teenage Girl* by Phoebe Gloeckner
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, although that is 21st century.
Forever by Judy Blume, which is a classic but I’m not sure if you need them to be more literary?
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth if you’re open to queer sexuality as well.
Lolita herself is almost invisible in the novel. It is certainly not about teen sexuality. It’s about the spiraling obsession of a pedophile.
Try Colette’s books, like Gigi or, especially, the four Claudine novels.
The sex is not the main point of the book, but teen sex (and its consequences) can be found in Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones.
You might want to skip Lolita, seeing how she’s 12 in the novel. Not exactly a teenager. Have you been watching the movie to decide on your BA thesis?