The Artistic Features Of Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov, a Russia-American, is commonly recognized as one of the most influential fiction writers of the 20th century, who bears peculiar understanding, sensitivity, explanation, and creativity on literature and art. His works often impress readers profoundly by fancy images, particular structures and mysterious word games so that people also view him as one of the greatest literary stylists in the world.Nabokov is a prolific writer, whose greatest achievement is novels, among which Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire, Ada are the best known. What amazingly attracts readers and critics is certainly his literary classic and his art, especially his artistry displayed in his beloved Lolita. In the decade since its initial publication in 1955 by the Olympia Press, Lolita has emerged as a virtual classic of contemporary literature, in which Nabokov's pursuit, exploration and creation of art are completely reflected.As a perfect representation of Nabokov's artistic achievements, Lolita's unique artistic features have caught more and more readers'and critics'attention. Its sophisticated narrative strategy, mysterious language and exquisite plotting have become great treasures of literature. So this thesis tries to make a comprehensive and systematic analysis on Lolita's artistic features.Chapter One is about the unreliability of Lolita's narration. In order to highlight Lolita's ironic intention, Nabokov deliberately lets the narrator's voice go without any restraint, that is, he produces a sympathetic narrator Humbert at first, and then pricks his narrative bubble without any mercy so as to enhance the irony and reveal the work's true meaning. And all of this is realized by creating the unreliability of narration, which is discussed in Chapter One from three aspects—first-person narration, duality of the narrator and the narratees, and the text's fictitious information.Chapter two discusses Lolita's mysterious and diversified language. As a work of art, Lolita incisively manifests Nabokov's unique techniques of language mastery. The whole novel resembles a brilliantly colorful maze made of words and meanings. Plenty of appellations, word games and the author's multi-lingual writing style play the most significant role in carrying its language artistic features. So Chapter Two presents the mystique and diversity of the language by analyzing the connotations of appellations, secrets of the word games and the author's multi-lingual writing style.Chapter Three concerns about Lolita's crafty plotting, which refers to the test's internal structure and the devices the author takes to organize the content. The careful design and arrangement of the plots contribute more than a little to the uniqueness of the novel. It is exquisite plotting that establishes the basis of the novel's artifice, and it is chiefly obtained through the devices of details, parody, allusion, and coincidence, which are all closely interrelated. This is what Chapter Three talks about.Based on the analysis above, the thesis draws the conclusion that Nabokov's perfect employment of consummate artistic techniques in these three aspects presents the uniqueness and highly artistic value of Lolita as a literary classic, and simultaneously shows Nabokov's great talents and originality in literary creation. As to the resource of the author's artistic achievements in Lolita, Nabokov's exile experiences and his concern about readers play an essential role. He resorts to literature to alleviate the pain of vagrancy and to find the internal peace. He spares no efforts to invite readers to go beyond the traditional novel appreciation, and come into his special artistic world.