Limited To The Era

Lolita is an outstanding novel composed by Nabokov. This novel was firstly published in France, then was forbiddened in America and the other countries in Europe. It was crowded by misunderstanding and vituperation. Furthermore, its publication was with a pack of erotic novels. Till nowadays, we all know that it's a novel of great value and accepted by most of readers and audience. It involvs the subject of paedophilia, while now there is another book which was awarded Barbara Jefferis Award in 2008 in Australia., having the same subject. Paedophilia is a hypersensitive subject, Feather Man not only has been published without obstacles but also awared many other literature awards in America. Behind all these honors, what make the two novels which have the same subject but totally different destiny in their first publication times.The acceptance esthetics theories include elementary reading and second level reading, from the angle of elementary reading, ie the micro way, the two novels have different narrative angles, different destinies for heroes and heroines which will give audience different feelings, and Lolita is much more difficult for readers to fully understand. As for the second level reading, the macro way, the values of Puritanism are the main factors that affecting the circumstances and situation of periods of that time. While the circumstances and situation can be divided into religious thoughts, the impact of multiculturalism, the attitudes towards women, the attitudes towards sex, education in America, the developing moral standards.Systematically, we can completely understand why Lolita couldn't be accepted when it was first published while Feather Man could.Hereby the thesis wants to do parallel comparison of these two novels which have the same sensitive subject from the angle of acceptance esthetics, use the methods of history of positivism to rejudge their acceptances in their times of first publication.