In this essay, I analyze Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita from an ecocritical perspective. I try as far as possible to ignore the pedophile theme and instead focus on the thematic environment: nature, places and language. I then discuss this with Greg Garrard's Ecocriticism, Timothy Morton's ecocritical theories and Leo Marx's The machine in the garden, among others. I come to the conclusion that the pedophile theme is depicted against the American pastoral, which is also used as a rhetorical tool by the novel's main character and narrator. / I den här uppsatsen analyserar jag Vladimir Nabokovs roman Lolita ur ett ekokritiskt perspektiv. Jag försöker så långt som möjligt bortse från det pedofila temat och i stället riktas mitt fokus på den tematiska omgivningen: naturen, platserna och språket. Detta diskuterar jag sedan med hjälp av bland annat Greg Garrards Ecocriticism, Timothy Mortons ekokritiska teorier samt Leo Marxs The machine in the garden. Jag kommer fram till att det pedofila temat skildras mot den amerikanska pastoralen, vilken också används som retoriskt redskap av romanens huvudkaraktär och berättare.

In her introduction to a special issue of the South Central Review on literary biography published in 2006, Linda Leavell writes, "Many would trace the disdain for literary biography—in both senses of the word “literary”—back through Roland Barthes’s “death of the author” to the New Critics’ division of text from context all the way to T. S. Eliot’s theory of impersonality. Critical theory of the past century has generally deemed an author’s life, personality, and intentions irrelevant to the text" (1). Leavell’s explanation of how critical theory of the twentieth century came to shape the current scholarly attitude towards literary biography establishes the genre’s status in an era of literary theory that is commonly characterized by the diminishment of the author as the source of meaning in a text, an era in which we remain. This characterization, however, overlooks the different ways that the theorists of the era displaced the author as the dominant figure in literary studies. This paper demonstrates how these different ways, despite whatever damage they might have done to the status of literary biography, actually benefit the study of the genre. Additionally, this paper argues that they not only comprise one side of Vladimir Nabokov’s contradictory views on his own authorship, which makes him an ideal subject for the study of authority over biographical representation, but also gave rise to new methodologies of literary biography, which are the methodologies of Nabokov’s biographers themselves. As a result, this paper concludes, “an author’s life, personality, and intentions” in turn have assumed new relevancy in literary studies. / text

This dissertation will apply the structure of a legal trial’s procedures to two Modernist novels: Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier (1915) and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955). These novels position themselves as renderings of legal proceedings, the written memoriam of metaphorical trials conducted by first person narrators who alternatively and simultaneously function as Plaintiff’s counsel, Defense Counsel and finally as witnesses to the events of the story. All of these personae reveal evidence and testimony presented in the forum of a trial of the central characters who recollect legal events and whose narrations develop moral questions. Thus these narrations are the court record, from which there is no appeal, culminating in not only persuasive arguments about guilt and innocence of the central characters, but also demanding that a verdict or moral judgment be rendered by the reader of these behaviors and values of the individuals as well as the societies which these authors critique in their novels. Ford Madox Ford in The Good Soldier (1915) and Vladimir Nabokov in Lolita (1955) create fictional artifacts which instill impressions of human life and present specific revelations of human nature in their art. Their narratives explain certain events in a temporal order, which communicate to readers a fictional world, its participants, and especially their emotions. These particular novels are early and late examples of Modernism, and are very different from one another, yet both illustrate the characteristics that so clearly define the Modern novel: art’s ability to engage not just the mind but the senses; the reader does not just read, but rather becomes immersed in the feelings of the characters in the story. The reader feels the dynamics between the characters through the narrative presentation as closely as possible to his or her being actually present in the fictionally created world of the novel. Both novels present their stories in a thrice-told frame that allows the character/narrators to explore epistemology and justifications for their acts or inaction. These stories are recollections, so that each character/narrator is remembering his respective narrative after the facts; these novels are unique for this timing.

The decades following two world wars, the European Holocaust and the threat of nuclear annihilation presented American authors with an occupational dilemma: catastrophic histories call out for recognition, but any representation of them risks adding violence to violence by falsifying the account or conflating historical acts of violence with their artificial doubles. This project reimagines the political aesthetics of postmodern American fiction through two major interventions. First, I identify an aesthetic structure of apposition--a parallel relationship between abstract works of art and the everyday world that I take from William Carlos Williams--that allows me to productively resolve a tension in the aesthetics of Hannah Arendt: because representation takes mimesis as a particular end, Arendt disqualifies representational art from politics, which she defines as open-ended action between human beings and not as end-centered state-craft. At the same time, Arendt claims that art is a product of thought, the cognitive activity she associates with political action over and against fabrication. My heterodox reading of Arendt shows that appositional narratives, like political actors, perform their own self-disclosure, beginning the open-ended chain of actions and reactions that Arendt identifies as the substantial form of politics and ethics. Second, I use my revision of Arendt to demonstrate that appositional narratives act politically through the very same metafictional tropes that critics often label as escapist or solipsistic. Rather than copy historical experience, appositional narratives reject illusionary representation and present themselves as actors, inciting their readers to respond with pluralistic, provisional judgment. Taking Vladimir Nabokov, Philip Roth and Toni Morrison--three central but rarely-juxtaposed postmodern novelists--as case studies, I show that we cannot properly assess the political implications of postmodern fiction without understanding the specific mechanisms of narrative apposition. Appositional works stand temporarily and self-consciously in the place of the world, displacing it in the experience of their readers. This narrative strategy provides a political alternative for novelists facing the ethical crises of postmodernity. Appositional narratives displace their readers' settled beliefs and press them to exercise their human capacity for judgment. They embrace their responsibility for the world by refusing to represent it. / text

This thesis focuses on the triadic relationships in works by Henry James and Vladimir Nabokov. I have used two psychoanalytic case studies, Bertha Pappenheim and Elma Pálos, to reflect how James and Nabokov use the analytic method for revealing stifled and fragmented voices in their daughter characters. I theorise that while Henry James prefigured the analytical doctor/patient dynamic in the father/daughter relationships in his novels, he also adds the mother figure, turning this into a triad. The controlling mother fragments the daughter’s speech and the situation of the triadic relationship damages the daughter’s ability to articulate her narrative. The novels, Watch and Ward (1871), Washington Square (1880), and The Awkward Age (1899) show James’s developing recognition of the role the mother plays in the triad, as well as his own role as author and narrator of the daughter’s story. The case studies also contain damaging triadic relationships. There has been limited interest in the triads and this, so far, has not been commented upon as a reason for the daughter’s mental disturbance. I use unpublished letters to try to uncover the ‘real’ voice of Elma. I see that literary and psychological criticism has been guilty of mistakes in research and misrepresentation. This has further fragmented the story of these women. I hope to show that both Henry James and Sigmund Freud inspired Vladimir Nabokov, despite his vehement opinions against them. He presents the same scenario of the triadic relationship, in a fictional but analytical setting, to express his own anxiety about ‘losing’ his native language. His feminised struggle is apparent in Lolita (1955), and even more so in the character of Lucette, in Ada (1969). Nabokov sees that, in analysis, the mother is a 3 threat to the daughter’s self-expression. He develops the mother character in his fiction to represent this discovery.

Magister Educationis - MEd / An important aspect of my thesis is the discussion of the various narrators in the novel; Vladimir Nabokov, John Ray Jnr. and Humbert Humbert. The novel, or Humbert’s memoirs, is only published after Lolita has died in order to preserve her dignity. John Ray Jnr. is the psychologist who is charged with editing Humbert's memoirs to ensure that no lewd details are published. This brings problems of their own, as we find that John Ray Jnr. has clear moral perceptions of Humbert as a person. This effectively creates a fiction within a fiction, which is already set in the fictitious genre of the novel. Vladimir Nabokov arguably informs the novel with his own ethics and ethos. This interrogates the reliability of the narrators and calls into question the truth-value of fiction and the inappropriateness of the law to ban fiction that discusses taboo issues. The main aim of my thesis is to discredit Humbert as a reliable narrator and character by analysing the taboo issues of paedophilia, incest, rape and murder. This will be done in order to show how Nabokov proposes alternative morals by deconstructing traditional morality using taboo topics in fiction

Cette thèse veut explorer l’idée de l’existence d’un roman de la non-linéarité, à travers un inventaire de la critique et l’analyse comparée de quatre ouvrages considérés comme appartenant à cette tradition (The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman, de Laurence Sterne ; Pale fire, de Vladimir Nabokov ; La vie mode d’emploi, de Georges Perec ; House of leaves, de Mark Z. Danielewski).Dans le premier chapitre, est postulée la thèse de deux traditions dans l’histoire du roman : la tradition du roman réaliste, et une tradition caractérisée par l’utilisation de formes non linéaires. L’analyse des études sur la tradition réflexive du roman, sur la théorie du chaos appliquée à la littérature, sur les marges textuelles, sur la lecture et sur l’intertextualité seront pris en compte pour soutenir cette thèse.Sur la base de ces questionnements, le deuxième chapitre esquisse une définition du roman de la nonlinéarité, qui comprend un répertoire des procédés et des thèmes communs à cette tradition, ainsi qu’une réflexion sur ses approches du monde et de l’identité humaine.Le troisième chapitre laisse la place à l’analyse des textes du corpus. Les quatre romans sont analysés chacun pour ses spécificités, et aussi dans la perspective de vérifier le postulat d’une tradition d’un roman de la non-linéarité. En s’appuyant sur de nombreux exemples extraits des romans pris en considération, l’analyse s’articule en huit sections : le problème du commencement ; l’intertextualité ; la complexité du récit de vie ; les questions de l’interruption, de la procrastination et de l’absence ; les approches dutemps ; les approches du langage ; le thème du jeu ; l’impossibilité de la fin. / This thesis aims to explore the idea of the existence of a novel of nonlinearity, through an inspection of the criticism and the comparative analysis of four works considered as belonging to this tradition (The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne; Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov; Life, a User’s Manual (La vie mode d’emploi), by Georges Perec; and House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski).The first chapter postulates the thesis of two traditions in the history of the novel: the tradition of the realist novel, and a tradition distinguished by the use of nonlinear forms. In order to support this thesis, I’ll take into account studies about the reflexive tradition of the novel, about chaos theory as applied to literature, about the margins of the text, about the reading experience, and about intertextuality.On the basis of this examination, the second chapter outlines a definition of the novel of nonlinearity, which includes a repertoire of the literary devices and themes common to this tradition, and a reflection about its perspectives upon the world and human identity.The third chapter is dedicated to the analyses of the texts included in the corpus. The four novels are analyzed for their distinctive features, and also in the aim of verifying the premise of the existence of a novel of nonlinearity. Drawing on numerous examples selected from the novels, these analyses are structured in eight sections: the problem of beginning; intertextuality; the complexity of life narratives; the issues of interruption, procrastination and absence; the approaches to time; the approaches to language; the theme of the game; and the impossibility of an ending.

In Lolita, Humbert is obsessed with the 12-year-old Lolita. It is a vulgar and disturbing story which raises questions about morality and ethics. With a sophisticated and elegant narrative, Humbert manages to draw attention to language rather than to his actions. Through fancy prose style Humbert covers up and hides his horrible actions. His verbal game serves to manipulate his readers to accept Humbert´s feelings and actions and sympathize with him.  Humbert´s narration is very persuasive and the reader is easily fooled to concentrate on what he says rather than what he does. In this essay deconstructive method is used to analyse Lolita. The study shows how binary oppositions are used in Lolita and what effect they have on the reader´s comprehension of the text. The study presents a number of incongruities in Humbert´s telling of the story and therefore the essay argues that Humbert cannot be trusted with the telling of his tale.

This thesis examines the use of form and spatial language in confessional fiction by men to elucidate how they conceptualise and negotiate material, corporeal, and psychological boundaries amidst the shifting social and political landscape of the United States since the Second World War. In light of increasingly urgent calls to address gender and racial discrimination in the United States, this study offers timely insight into an identity that, while culturally dominant, often escapes examination: white, heterosexual masculinity. Focusing on the representation of forms and spatial imagery, the chapters explore how five formally experimental novelists-Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph McElroy, Harry Mathews, William H. Gass, and Peter Dimock- employ the confessional genre to illustrate the way men perceive themselves as spatially and temporally circumscribed, and to look at the way they reinforce or transgress the boundaries of masculine identity. The post-war period in the United States witnessed a proliferation of confessional writing that coincided with the popularisation of Freudian psychoanalysis, the cold war rhetoric of suspicion, and the rise of second-wave feminism. As a result, the concept of the self increasingly becomes a repository for fantasies of potential discovery and hidden danger that rely, significantly, on metaphors of surface and depth. It is within, and often against, this cultural preoccupation with the self that these writers address, both directly and indirectly, the status of white masculinity. Drawing on innovative theories of forms and spatiality, this study examines the diverse language and imagery men use to describe their sense of selfhood as well as the bonds they form with others. The works considered in this study demonstrate a common preoccupation with the boundaries that separate interior from exterior and private from public. In response to pressures both intimate and impersonal, the narrators of the texts discussed in this thesis turn to confessional practices of written self-examination to locate themselves within networks of fluctuating relations and obligations. The question that this thesis seeks to resolve is whether the forms and spatial language the narrators employ enable or obstruct their efforts to negotiate the competing demands of ethical responsibilities to others and the desire to preserve a stable sense of self.

Embora o nome Nabókov remeta tão-somente a escritor norte-americano, criador de Lolita, raro se lembra de sua origem russa. Nem os leitores, nem a crítica literária brasileira associam Nabókov à literatura russa, apesar de ter-se consagrado primeiramente como autor russo e por mais de 20 anos ter escrito nessa língua, com a qual ele se identifica tanto como escritor, tradutor e autotradutor, quanto como professor e teórico. A presente dissertação é o primeiro trabalho a trazer tradução direta do russo da coletânea de contos Primavera em Fialta (1956), obra-prima do momento russo de Nabókov, inédita no Brasil. Propõe-se a adentrar o arcabouço nabokoviano, delinear sua poética e traçado distintivo, ressaltando seus procedimentos estilísticos e lingüísticos. Finalmente, objetiva-se observar o processo tradutório de Nabókov, suscitando questões atreladas às mudanças de paisagem e língua literária e investigando a relação entre escritura, tradução e identidade cultural e artística. / Although Nabokov is usually best remembered as the North-American author of Lolita, his Russian origins are rarely mentioned. Brazilian readers and literary critics never think of linking Nabokov with Russian literature, even though he was first known as a Russian writer, for over two decades, and even though he identified himself as such, as well as being a translator, self-translator, teacher and theoretician. This master thesis is the first one to offer a direct translation from Russian into Portuguese of Spring in Fialta (1956), a remarkable collection of short stories from Nabokov s Russian period, considered a masterpiece, never yet published in Brazil. It will also describe Nabokov´s poetics and stylistic peculiarities, as well as the linguistic process at work in the short stories. This work aims at studying Nabokov´s translation process, raising issues linked with the changes in his literary landscape and language, and observing the relation between writing, translation, as well as cultural and artistic identity.