Lolita: Metafiction

Vladimir Nabokov, born in Russia, with American nationality, is commonly recognized as the postmodernist writer. And his novel Pale Fire(l962) is listed as a classic of postmodernism. But few people notice that Lolita(1955) which is written before Plae Fire is a metnfiction of postmodernism.Lolita tells us an abnormal story in which Humbert, a 40 years old man fell in love with a 12 years girl, nymphet, Lolita. Since its publication, Lolita immediately attracted the world' s attention but most people misunderstand it as pornographic novel. In fact, Lolitn is grave and the value has nothing to do with pornography, love, and any other content but form and structure. There are two narrative structures in Lolitn, one makes the readers to believe that the plot and character is real, the other indicates that the story is a lie. The real and unreal structures coexist in the novel which takes us into a unique world.Except indicating the unreal structure of the novel, Nabokov makes Lolita a metafiction in the way of "blending the writer and the characters, breaking frame, self-reflexivity, explaining criticism in the novel" .The critics in China began their research about Nabokov in the 80' .It is a pity that most critics try to find the meaning of content which was sneered by Nabokov. For example, somebody analyzes the different description of sex between Lilota and pornographic novels; somebody wants to testify the Humbert' real love. However, this authortries to discover the value of lolita' s structure.The thesis can he divided into four parts. Part one tries to define metal'iction; Part two introduces Nabokov' s view of literature. Part three analyzes the real and unreal structures in Lolita. Part four summarizes the characteristics of Lolita and its aesthetic value as metaficiton.