Anne Kathrine Enevoldsen 13-05-15
Elective 3: How to Read Nabokov
1
Aesthetics and ethics in Lolita
Humbert’s role as central character and narrator of Lolita gives him much power and control, and it is one of the main reasons the novel has often been criticized as being immoral and unethical.
Because how should the reader understand a text which forces him to lend ears to a narrator who is so foreign to most, and whose standards are so deranged? This is where there is an ethical core in the narration of Lolita. Humbert is funny, and laughing with him may make readers feel guilty. He is aesthetically empowering; enjoying his style, wit and language may therefore sometimes overshadow the content of the novel. For these reasons, Nabokov has often
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But Humbert’s attempt to present himself as an aesthete and thereby justify his actions is only partial. Colin McGill has described Humbert as an “aesthetic paradox” (109); in contrast to his good looks and intelligent mind, Humbert also describes himself as a “sly tumescent devil” (Nabokov
116), and a “pentaped monster” (284). And there are indeed moments where we seem to be invited to see Humbert as a monster. I will now turn to the ways in which the implied Nabokov can be said to ask the reader to distance himself from Humbert.
The reason why Humbert is able to (try to) impose his perspective onto the reader is because he alone is in control of the narration and dominates the focalization. But as critics have pointed out, we can distinguish between two Humberts and narrative layers; Humbert the character and Humbert the narrator. And the distinction here, which Phelan calls dual focalization, has complicated
3 The three ethical positions proposed by Phelan in ”Dual Focalization, Discourse as Story, and Ethics.” The third position is the one between implied author and audience
Anne Kathrine Enevoldsen 13-05-15
Elective 3: How to Read