Table Of ContentSTUDIES IN MOBILITIES,
LITERATURE, AND CULTURE
The American Roadside in
Émigré Literature,
Film, and Photography
1955–1985
Elsa Court
Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture
Series Editors
Marian Aguiar
Department of English
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Charlotte Mathieson
University of Surrey
Guildford, UK
Lynne Pearce
English Literature & Creative Writing
Lancaster University
Lancaster, UK
This series represents an exciting new publishing opportunity for scholars
working at the intersection of literary, cultural, and mobilities research.
The editors welcome proposals that engage with movement of all kinds –
ranging from the global and transnational to the local and the everyday.
The series is particularly concerned with examining the material means
and structures of movement, as well as the infrastructures that surround
such movement, with a focus on transport, travel, postcolonialism, and/
or embodiment. While we expect many titles from literary scholars who
draw upon research originating in cultural geography and/or sociol-
ogy in order to gain valuable new insights into literary and cultural
texts, proposals are equally welcome from scholars working in the social
sciences who make use of literary and cultural texts in their theorizing.
The series invites monographs that engage with textual materials of all
kinds – i.e., film, photography, digital media, and the visual arts, as well
as fiction, poetry, and other literary forms – and projects engaging with
non-western literatures and cultures are especially welcome.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15385
Elsa Court
The American
Roadside
in Émigré
Literature, Film,
and Photography
1955–1985
Elsa Court
Queen Mary University of London
London, UK
Studies in Mobilities, Literature, and Culture
ISBN 978-3-030-36732-9 ISBN 978-3-030-36733-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36733-6
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A
cknowledgements
Research for this book was supported by the Yale-UCL Collaborative
Student Exchange Programme.
The passages from Vladimir Nabokov’s “Page-a-Day Diary” (1951)
were used by permission of The Wylie Agency LCC.
Securing the rights to publish this archive material from the Vladimir
Nabokov papers would not have been possible without the support of
the Société Française Vladimir Nabokov.
I would like to thank my supervisors and mentors at University
College London, Matthew Beaumont and Mark Ford for their patience
and insights, as well as my doctoral examiners, Peter Swaab and Will
Norman, for their re-readings, encouragements and perceptive com-
ments. I would like to address a special thank you to Philip Horne for his
depth of insights on the Psycho chapter and for many other spirited con-
versations about Alfred Hitchcock.
A very special merci to my mother, father and brother for their love
and ongoing support from across the Channel.
So much gratitude goes to my friends and colleagues at the University
of London and beyond, especially Roberta Klimt, Matthew Ingleby,
Chris Stamatakis, Luke Davies, Eliza Cubitt, Alexandra Parsons, Jess
Cotton, Kate Maltby, Beci Carver, Claire M. Holdsworth, Eric Langley,
Katherine Angel, Matthew Sperling, Matthew Holman, Michael
McCluskey, Cara Rodway, Mercedes Aguirre, Nina Ellis, Elsa Baroghel,
and Daniel Rothschild, among many others.
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am ever grateful to American and Canadian friends and colleagues
for their companionship during various research-related travels, and espe-
cially to Alisa Zhulina for her translations of Vladimir Nabokov’s road
notes from Russian, Kathy Lubey for her ceaseless support and first-rate
camaraderie, and Alanna Thain for her precious insights on film theory
and her encouragements over the years. Special thank you to Laurel
Murray and Jonathan Greaves for travelling with me to see the Cabazon
Dinosaurs and other notable roadside attractions in the Spring of 2016
(and for Fig. 1), one road trip I’ll never forget.
I am, finally, ever so appreciative of the Société Française Vladimir
Nabokov’s ongoing friendship and tireless work over the years.
Fig. 1 A picture of the author posing with “Dinny” the Dinosaur in Cabazon,
CA, April 2016
P T A r
rAise for he mericAn oAdside in
É L , F , P
migrÉ iTerATure iLm And hoTogrAPhy
“Elsa Court’s The American Roadside in Émigré Literature, Film, and
Photography: 1955–1985 is a welcome contribution to the study of
American mobility in the postwar era from a transatlantic perspective. Its
merits lie in its interdisciplinarity (it offers separate chapters on Nabokov,
Frank, Hitchcock, and Wenders) and in its lucid engagement with
European theorists of the late-twentieth century, which puts pressure on
certain accepted notions of emptiness and non-placeless.”
—Monica Manolescu, Associate Professor of English at the University
of Strasbourg, France, and author of Cartographies of New York
and Other Postwar American Cities (Palgrave, 2018)
vii
c
ontents
1 Introduction: By the Way—The Roadside as Other Space 1
2 “Stationary Trivialities”: Life on the Margins
in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) 23
3 “Roadside Eye”: Accidents and Epiphanies in Robert
Frank’s The Americans (1958) 65
4 “We’re All in Our Private Traps”: Alfred Hitchcock’s
Psycho (1960) and the Decline of the American Motel 105
5 Roadside Chronicles: Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (1984) 143
6 Conclusion: America Revisited 179
Index 187
ix
l f
ist of igures
Chapter 1
Fig. 1 “This right here is America!” from Ilf & Petrov’s American
Road Trip, 2013 3
Chapter 2
Fig. 1 Vladimir Nabokov’s road notes, an excerpt from the author’s
Page-a-Day Diary, recorded in 1951 45
Chapter 3
Fig. 1 Robert Frank, Backyard—Venice West, California,
The Americans (1958) 77
Fig. 2 Robert Frank, Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Americans (1958) 89
Chapter 4
Fig. 1 The Bates Motel, Psycho (1960) 112
Fig. 2 Marion packing her suitcase before leaving Phoenix,
Psycho (1960) 118
Fig. 3 Marion unpacking her bags on arrival at the Bates Motel,
Psycho (1960) 118
Fig. 4 Marion closing her wardrobe’s door before leaving
her flat in Phoenix, Psycho (1960) 119
xi
