A Tentative Approach To The Postmodern Features Of Nabokov's Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian-born American novelist, is generally acknowledged as a unique and distinctive figure in the 20th century American literature. Both Nabokov and his works often give rise to controversy among critics. Many critics acclaim Nabokov as one of the finest stylists and one of the greatest novelists in American literature, and argue that, in the intensity of intelligence and reflective joy, his literary writing is unique in his contemporary American literature. Lolita is one of the most controversial works in the world. The novel brought Nabokov international reputation, but also leaves readers the untold topic from generation to generation.From the viewpoint of literature development, there is no absolute boundary between modernism and postmodernism. It is argued that writers in the same period might not necessarily belong to one literary school, but the same writer can create works of different schools in different periods. Nabokov is a good example in point. Nabokov is a mature modernist novelist; later Nabokov converts himself into a postmodernist novelist. Since Nabokov has almost accomplished his transformation in the period of writing Lolita, this thesis will start from Lolita to conduct research on its postmodern features, together with postmodern writing ideology of Nabokov so as to analyze Nabokov's postmodern consciousness represented in his most popular work Lolita step by step.As postmodernism is a vague term, it is inevitable that discordant voice will be heard on how to comment a postmodern fiction. Most critics noticed some postmodern elements in Nabokov's later novels, e.g. Pale Fire and Ada. As far as Lolita is concerned, we find few critics have studied the novel from a postmodern perspective. If we take a close look at it, we can find this novel bears some distinct postmodern characteristics. This thesis aims to cast a new angle of view and argue that Nabokov's Lolita is imbued with postmodern features. It is hoped that this thesis will be beneficial for further study of Nabokov's life and works.