The Philosophy Of Aesthetic Bliss: A Marxist Reading Of Nabakov's Lolita
Date of Graduation
Summer 1996
Degree
Master of Arts in English
Department
English
Committee Chair
Wayne Blackmon
Abstract
In this thesis I will demonstrate, that, far from being entirely removed from social or political ideologies, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is actually a very emphatic cultural statement. Using the theories of Fredric Jameson, I will examine the novel in terms of what it has to say about social relations, uncovering the inescapable political agenda. Lolita is a Modernist novel further rooted in the tradition of Russian Symbolism, both movements lending it a backward-looking desire for an older and more readily defined social order. Nabokov was essentially a conservative elitiest, encouraging the MOdernist separation of popular aret and "great art" possessing the verities of Truth, Beauty, and Art. In addition to Jameson, I will make use of Nabokov's own writings and the long and varied body of criticism on Lolita, althought most often to either contradict them (in Nobokov's case) or to explain why they do not go far enough or serve any real purpose (as is the case with the majority of the criticism).
Subject Categories
English Language and Literature
Copyright
© Dustin Coppock Pascoe
Recommended Citation
Pascoe, Dustin Coppock, "The Philosophy Of Aesthetic Bliss: A Marxist Reading Of Nabakov's Lolita" (1996). MSU Graduate Theses. 988.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/988
Dissertation/Thesis
