Beautiful And Mysterious Paintings

Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is one of the most outstanding novelists in the literary world in the twentieth century. His novels, for their special artistic temperament and complicated plots, always leave strong impressions on readers. Through his works had raised many debates and misunderstandings concerned with the ethics of the story, his status in the literary world has already been acknowledged by increasing critics and readers. As a critic, he proposed that the significance of a novel lies in its style and language, not in its morality. As a novelist, his fictions are like fine arts that with complex structures, subtle words, parody and imagination. The characters in his fictions, especially the women figures, are so unique and mysterious that they perfectly display Nabokov's artistic and literary viewpoints in the fictions. Although Nabokov has a relatively traditional view on the status of women figures, compared with the heroes, they have the priority in displaying author's viewpoints from more perspectives. Through his careful and emotional description in the heroes' imagination and memory, the angel and the devil images of the women show the enormous artistic effects, and the butterfly that symbolizes women figures are repeatedly appeared in the fictions. Moreover, the two sides of the women figures illustrate Nabokov's aesthetic bliss theory, give prominence to the theme of the fiction, and also bring great black humor effects.This paper starts with the analysis of the women characters in Nabokov's fictions, and tries to convey a better understanding of Nabokov's literary viewpoints based on the analysis of women's double images. After the first part of introduction, the second part of this paper makes a general introduction to his women figures, and then tries to study on the two typical images of their complex characters as both angels and devils. It further deals with the artistic devices in portraying women, including creation in imagination, memory and inspiration, the aesthetic effects in the descriptive language, and the symbolic meaning of the butterfly. Part three analyzes the significance of the women figures. They do not only explain Nabokov's aesthetic bliss, but also express the author's concerns for humanity, and show strong black humor effects. Based on the previous study, part four elaborates Nabokov's artistic and literary viewpoints as a transitional novelist from modernism to postmodernism, concentrating respectively on his aesthetic bliss theory, the Baroque Nabokovian style, and the relationship between creation, memory and inspiration as well as the theme of his fiction.From the previous analysis, the paper arrives at the conclusion that women in the fictions have displayed the artistic effects that men can not express. They also illustrate and extend Nabokov's artistic and literary viewpoints. It helps us to have a deeper understanding of Nabokov's fiction and his viewpoints on fiction creation, and also enlightens the ideas and techniques of the postmodern literature.