THIS ESSAY OFFERS AN ANALYSIS UNDER SAUSSURE’S THEORY OF STRUCTURALISM, ___ THEORY OF NARRATOLOGY AND EXPLORES THE FUNDAMENTAL BASIS THESE THEORIES SHARE. MY THESIS WILL ANALYSE BOOTH’S DEFINITION OF ‘UNRELIABLE NARRATION’, AS WELL AS OPPOSING CLASSIFICATIONS OF THE TERM FROM OTHER LITERARY CRITICS TO DETERMINE THE RELIABILITY OF HUMBERT HUMBERT’S NARRATION IN VLADIMIR NABOKOV’S NOVEL LOLITA AND CONCLUDE ON THE TRUSTWORTHINESS OF HIS NARRATIVE.
Vladimir Nabokov’s most critically acclaimed novel Lolita has been a talking point for literary critics since its publication in1955 “…Yet, its particular mix of complex prose, and troublesome subject matter continues to produce outcries” (Reference), proving to be so controversial and provocative that
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This dynamic gender binary is established by the opposition of the narrator Humbert Humbert and Lolita. This opposition of the story’s primary characters serves to remind the audience of the hegemonic relationship between thirteen year old Lolita and Humbert. Asserting the dominance of Humbets character throughout his narration.
The common occurrence in Lolita to mirror by parody and binary opposition is not limited to such. An essay by ___ brings attention to the mirroring of the word “Lolita” being both the first and last word of the novel’s general narration, this contextualises the stories focal point and examines the correlation between the introduction and conclusion providing a structural element to the novel, which many critics analyse as lacking such. This inaugural idea of binaries within Lolita
Derived and influenced by early forms of Structuralism, Narratology which was brought together by Vladimir Propp’s book Morfologiya skazki (1928; Morphology of the Folk Tale) and his theory’s regarding the 31 ‘functions’ in narratives, scrutinizes the concept of a text and the nature of the story and its presentation. Structuralism and Narratology share a mutual idea concerning the common literary language that functions within the textual aspects of a work (Encyclopedia Britannica). Granting Narratology theory has achieved some independence from its predecessor Structuralism, the theory also draws heavily upon the study of
I hadn't really considered the importance of the narrative voice on the way the story is told until now. In "Araby", "Livvie" and "The Yellow Wallpaper" the distinctive narrative voices and their influences shed light on hidden meanings and the narrator's credibility.
One must overlook the fact that Vladimir Nabokov has written, Lolita has no moral in tow. (314). Nabokov has obviously anticipated the reader's response to his novel and so he discloses that he sees no moral value in the book. This is obviously a false statement that is used to complicate the book and make the reader think. Lolita is full of moral choices and situations that learned readers will recognize and make judgments on. Most readers have a conscience and thus look for the moral contained in the story. This argument thoughtfully represents Nabokov's Lolita with real world morals.
The effects of Humbert growing up “in a bright world of illustrated books” is evident in his approach to life and the ways in which he mythifies his own. When Humbert first sees Lolita, he describes the incident in storied and fanciful terminology, imagining himself in his own whirlwind fantasy, as a “fairy-tale nurse of some little princess.” Magic is also a theme that occurs consistently throughout the novel – from the “magic of nymphets” to “magic potions” – further indicating Humbert’s tendency to meld fictional symbolisms into his own
The entire novel is a memoir to a court jury that is following Humbert’s case of murder, harassment, and pedophilia. Starting the novel is the poetic line “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins” (Nabokov 9) already dragging the reader in as well as the jury. Calling her the light of his life almost makes the reader feel the strong emotion that Humbert feels for Lolita. The reader understands that he is deeply in love with this girl… (Mulready). Humbert even says that you can “count on a murder for a fancy prose style” (Nabokov), already suggesting that he’s aware in his way of voice and dialect… he is showing
New Criticism is described to focus on values on the individual’s work’s meaning. This approach which is a close analytic reading of the text, is the approach I will be using. I chose to analyze both stories Life of a sensuous women and Hedda Gabbler. I will apply these texts to compare/contrast in terms of character and how it affects the themes in the story.
...d imagery Humbert seduces his readers just as craftily as he seduces Lolita. Words are his power, and he uses them to charm and distract his audience. He is a pedophile and a murderer, but he builds up elaborate explanations for every doing, and his language protects him. With Lolita, Nabokov’s overreaching achievement may be that he forces readers to confide in Humbert’s crimes and bring reasoning to the table. Readers have to immerse themselves in Humbert’s words in order to uncover the true story. By closely engaging with Humbert’s word trickery, readers cannot hold him at a far enough distance to see him for the man he truly is.
After Charlotte conveniently dies from a far out death, Humbert is finally free to pursue Lolita and make plans for their first night together alone. Although she is gone Humbert finds that he is unable to sleep well and is having strange dreams. Humbert says “I was aroused by gratuitous and horribly exhausting congress with a small hairy hermaphrodite, total stranger (Nabokov 109)”
Although they are intimately involved, the title character of Nabokov's Lolita never fully reveals her true self to Humbert. Likewise, Humbert pours his physical love into Lolita, but he never reveals to his stepdaughter a self that is separate from his obsession with her. These two characters mask large parts of their personalities from each other and the rest of the world, creating different images and personas in regard to different people and situations. One assumption of post-structuralism holds that “persons are culturally and discursively structured, created in interaction as situated, symbolic beings.” In accordance with this idea that people are created by their culture and in their interactions, both Lolita and Humbert have different personalities in different situations and circumstances. However, they ultimately show a more continuous and profound self-existence than just as faces created in their various interactions.
His first redeeming attribute is his real and true love for Lolita. Humbert infact confesses that, “I loved her. It was love at first sight, at last sight and ever sight”(270). If the reader thinks back to the beginning of the novel Humbert refers to Lolita as someone who only brought him lust. Humbert also makes it a point to tell the audience that he only like girls who fall into his nymphetic criteria and anyone who is too old does not appeal to him. When Humbert sees Lolita though after three years of being apart he says that “I insist the world know how much I loved my Lolita, this Lolita, pale and polluted, and big with another’s child, but still gray-eyed, still sooty-lashed, still auburn and almond, still Carmencita, still mine”(278). No matter how she has age and move past her nymphetic stage of life Humbert still loves her. Humbert even goes on to say that, “No matter, even if those eyes of hers world fade to myopic fish, and her nipples swell and crack, and her lovely young velvety delicate delta be tainted and torn-even then I world go mad with tenderness at the mere sight of your dear wan face, at the mere sound of your raucous young voice, my Lolita”(278). This is true love that he is feeling. No matter what happens to her he will still love her. Humbert has
The categories associated with the means of means of characterization are considered to be explicit vs. implicit characterization, auto- vs. alterocharacterization and figural and narratorial as the foci of characterization. The use of certain means of characterization depends upon the preference of the author: his style, intentions and choice of focus. The characters are characterized by 1) what they say themselves, 2) what they do, 3) what the narrator says about them and 4) what other characters say about them. One should not, however, take for granted what is said by other characters since they might not be reliable, especially if one notices certain inconsistencies. This essay focuses on a story called Witness for the Prosecution written by the famous writer of detective stories, Agatha Christie. The plot centers around a crime (the murder of Miss Emily French) and starts with the discourse between Mr. Mayherne, the solicitor, and Mr. Vole, the accused person who swears being innocent of the crime. Later in the story appears Mr. Vole's wife and, acting extremely skillfully, plays the major role in acquitting her husband. The essay attempts to analyse Mr. Mayherne's (Agarha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution) characterization according to the aforementioned characterization parameters.
Nabokov presents the reader with three touching characters of the mother, father, and son. The characters of the story arouse a sense of compassion and sympathy from the reader due to the helpless situation they are in. For example, the son in the story suffers from a condition called “referential mania.” Referential mania is a case where “the patient imagines that everything happening around him is a veiled reference to his personality and existence” (1166). In other words, the son has this perception where he is in a state of paranoia where he feels as if the objects around him are evil and plotting against him. He feels as if “clouds in the staring sky transmit signs detailing information about him, coats in window stores have a distort opinion of him and misinterpret his actions….he must always be on guard every minute and module of life to decoding of the undulation of things” (1167). The son is always on this mission with the objects trying to decipher the meaning behind why these objects are...
This paper briefly looks at the structure of imbalance in hallucinogenic narratives, mainly Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil. Skirting an aspect of thematic analysis in terms of the characters and the setting, the paper seeks to open the question for a linearity in logic for stories and its necessary implication to the reader. By employing a closer gaze at the allegory of the hyperreal in Narcopolis, the construction of identity for both the characters and the novel itself, becomes the central focus for this paper, in its addressing of notions such as addiction and intoxication. Key terms: Construction of the self; inchoate narrative devices; hyperreal allegories; hallucinogenic narratives; structural imbalance.
Literary critic and the novel’s annotator Alfred Appel Jr. claims “what is extraordinary about Lolita is the way in which Nabokov enlists us, against our will, on Humbert’s side… Humbert has figuratively made the reader his accomplice in both statutory rape and murder” (Durantaye, Style Is Matter: the Moral Art of Vladimir Nabokov 8). Nabokov employs various literary devices such as direct second reader address, metaphor, and allusions through Humbert Humbert as a means to conjure up feelings of empathy. The reader comes to find that . It is clear that Humbert Humbert uses second person address as a way to control how the reader perceives him. Through the use of this narrative mode, he aims to convince the reader that his sexual violence is artistically justifiable and that the art he creates is a remedy for mortality. I will argue is that art is not a remedy for mortality because in Humbert Humbert’s creation of Lolita, t...
In his "On a Book Entitled Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov recalls that he felt the "first little throb of Lolita" run through him as he read a newspaper article about an ape who, "after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage." The image of a confinement so complete that it dominates and shapes artistic expression (however limited that expression may be) is a moving and powerful one, and it does, indeed, reflect in the text of Lolita. Humbert Humbert, the novel's eloquent poet-narrator, observes the world through the bars of his obsession, his "nympholepsy", and this confinement deeply affects the quality of his narration. In particular, his powerful sexual desires prevent him from understanding Lolita in any significant way, so that throughout the text what he describes is not the real Lolita, but an abstract creature, without depth or substance beyond the complex set of symbols and allusions that he associates with her. When in his rare moments of exhaustion Humbert seems to lift this literary veil, he reveals for a moment the violent contrast between his intricately manipulated narration and the stark ugliness of a very different truth.
To be most clear, the arguments here have a strict ethical basis which is derived from the techniques of professional literary critics and those professed in the field of english literature. These sages of literature have taught me, and through their example, the rules of interpreting literature. It has been learned that if one is to understand the message of a story correctly, it must be something which is prevalent throughout the story; something that comes and goes with little participation in the plot can be taken as something merely to move the story along as much as it can be a medium of intellectual expression of the real world. Any proper analysis for theme must treat text as a Freud-Jungian representation of the artists opinions and sentiments, as if it were the dream of the writer, where each charact...