Lolita

An Analysis of the Repulsive in Nabokov's Lolita

This paper will show why Vladimir Nabokov chose to illustrate a theme that is considered by many to be repulsive: it was a theme through which he could hold the mirror up to society and reflect what he saw happening in the world around him. When Nabokov's Lolita debuted first in Paris and then in America in the 1950s, it provoked one of two reactions (aside from the compulsion to buy -- its first American paperback printing sold out): it provoked either condemnation or disinterest. Graham Greene was the first high-profile author to recommend the novel, but his recommendation did not deter his home country (Britain) from banning the book. It appeared that what the Russian-born Nabokov had set out to do, "to disturb the cultural purity of easily-shocked America," ("Fracturing the Pawn") had in one sense been successful: the easily-shocked...
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