A Study Of Parody In Lolita

This thesis researches on parody in Lolita which is the first masterwork of Nabokov,the American postmodernist writer.Summarization of the definition and historical development of parody demonstrates that it is the prominent writing technique in Lolita.Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee” expresses the overwhelming and everlasting love of the poet.The parody of this poem in Lolita serves as a foil of Humbert’s alienated love and distorted personality,thus creating a bantering mocking effect against the original poem.The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Stevenson tells a story of dual personality.The parody of this text in Lolita exposes the complicated personality of Humbert as a mixture of evil and romance without subjectivity,thus creating an effect of honoring but in the meanwhile subverting the original text.Eliot’s “Ash Wednesday” and “Gerontion” convey the hope for salvation.The parody of these two poems in Lolita mirrors the absurdity of human existence and the impossibility of salvation,thus creating an effect of irony against the original poems.The research on Lolita from the perspective of parody engenders a perception of how the author deconstructs the classics to highlight the fictitiousness of literary texts.Such angle also renders the insight into the complexity of human nature and the spiritual predicament of human existence,enabling a full and plural interpretations of the novel and a better understanding of its postmodernist features.