The Dialectic Relationship Between Time And Subject Of Desire In Lolita

Ever since the presentation of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, a famous Russian-American writer, Lolita has experienced a lot: many refusals coming from publishers to enjoyment of world-fame, which can be called a history of frustrations. Lolita, however, survived the test of time and received the status of classic masterpiece in the history of literature eventually. A lot of beneficial attempts to comment on Lolita were made by some former scholars. Although some critics studied Lolita from the angle of sociology and others studied it from the angles of ethic and morality, philosophy, post-modernism or narration, comments on dialectic relationship between time and subject of desire were rarely covered. Based on the above facts, the present thesis will mainly focus on the dialectic relationship between time and subject of desire and then reconsider the theme of time in Nabokov's works.On the basis of the intensive reading of Lolita, the author, from the aspects of time and subject of desire, studied the dialectic relationship between them. Time in Lolita can be divided into two types, namely, linear time (or physical time) and original time (or pure time, duration) where the subject of desire entangled. The thesis, by analyzing the two kinds of desires presented in these two different kinds of time and analyzing the desire subject's attempts to surpass time and the failure of desire , attempts to find out the dialectic relationship between time and subject of desire.The thesis consists of five parts. In the first part, the author combed all the studies on Nabokov and his Lolita, summarized the achievements by former scholars and pointed out the break point of the present thesis. The themes of time and desire subject in Lolita from Nabokov's point of time were presented in the second part. The third part started with the analysis of desire subject's struggle in the jail of time, and then analyzed that subject of desire imagined different divided selves on the three repeated scenes during the period of pure time. The dialectic relationship between time and subject of desire were mainly dealt with in the fourth part. In the fifth part, the author, by analyzing the facts that in Nabokov's works, subject of desire is crazy about time, reconsidered the dialectic relationship between time and subject of desire existing in Lolita. Then the author summarized that pure time clings to the subject of desire, the death of the latter results in the disappearance of the former, and that physical time is linear and it ceases for no one. All people may die, but physical time will continue running with no pause. Subject of desire cannot break through jail of time and will never get to the parting heaven.