镜子中的现实——论《洛丽塔》中纳博科夫的镜像现实观-reality in the mirror —— on nabokovs mirror reality view in lolita.docxVIP

ABSTRACTVladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is a famous Russian born American writer. He is generally acknowledged as an influential novelist, stylist, critic, translator, and poet in the twentieth century. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Nabokov created a large number of Russian novels in his exile period. When he settled in the United States, he produced many English novels, while the most famous one that brings him the world-known reputation is the novel Lolita. Finished in 1954, Lolita was at first criticized and assailed for its forbidden and blatant theme and plot. But now, it has become an extraordinary masterpiece of the world.Nabokov’s distinctive literary ideas are the foundation of his literary works, among which, the view on reality is the most prominent. In his interviews and autobiography, he mentioned that reality in a novel is subjective and specific; instead of imitating or reflecting an objective world, literary works should pursue the artistic value through imagination and deceptive tricks. In most of Nabokov’s works, the image of “mirror” is used. He compared the reality in a novel to the reflection in the mirror. But different from views of the realist novelists in the 19th century, Nabokov held that the novel is not the direct reflection of reality; instead, it is a distorted and transmutative reflection through a distorting mirror. According to his mirrored reality view, literature is an unconstrained game rather than a carrier of social or moral responsibility. Considered as one of the originators of black humor technique, Nabokov discarded the traditional narrative strategy, combined the narration of realistic life with absurd fantasy and illusory memory, so as to create a ridiculous and absurd world in the novel. The use of black humor helps to build up a distorted reality in a novel, perfectly conforming to his mirrored reality view – the novel is not the reflection of social reality, but a literary game.The analysis in this thesis is based on t