Lolita's Nietzchean morality

M. Rodgers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This essay wakes the sleeping dog that is Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Rejecting the critical consensus suggesting that it has the ability to educate morally its readers, this essay, instead, heralds the idea that Lolita is a critique of morality. Focusing on the text's similarities with Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy, I aim to negate the various interpretations that argue that Nabokov's cause célèbre houses a traditionally virtuous morality. By examining Nabokov's literary technique and illustrating how this, at a meta-level, echoes Nietzsche's philosophy of a "transvaluation of all values," I argue that Lolita forces readers to inhabit a disorientating Nietzschean world
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)104-120
Number of pages17
JournalPhilosophy and Literature
Volume35
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2011

Keywords

  • olita's
  • nietzchean morality
  • nietzchean
  • morality
  • lolita
  • vladimir nabokov
  • critique
  • virtuous morality
  • nietzschean world

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