Vladimir Nabokov�s Lolita has influenced society�s paranoia surrounding the sexuality and psychosexual development of children. Although the novel�s intention was to dissolve the misconceptions of absolute purity and innocence that Romantic works of fiction, poetry and art created around women and children, the rigidity of the 1950s followed by the overt sexual backlash of the 1960s merely worsened society�s fears surrounding child sexuality. Even though in psychotherapy, Sigmund Freud�s theory on sexuality beginning at infantry as opposed to puberty is almost fully accepted by all members as fact, popular society continues to reject the child�s early development and, more importantly, role as a sexual being. Young girls, or �nymphets�, as the novel�s protagonist Humbert Humbert poetically deems them, seem to be the most protected of all and thus considered the most potentially dangerous. Young girls possess a partially conscious and partially unconscious sexuality that must be properly acknowledged and examined by society in order to enforce suitable yet non-oppressive protection so as to ensure the safety of both potential victim and perpetrator. The relationship between the two, as demonstrated in Lolita, is irreversible.

The poster of Kubrick�s film adaptation of Lolita depicts actress Sue Lyon, in the role of Lolita, sucking invitingly on a red lollipop while wearing the now infamous red heart sunglasses. This sexually charged image has been permanently etched into social consciousness and the very name and concept of �Lolita� has evolved into its own independent archetype. Used as commonly if not moreso than upon the release of Nabokov�s novel, the term �Lolita� today is used to describe sexuality under the guise of innocence and naivety, with almost always sinister intentions, most likely the downfall of the male victim/perpetrator.

...Artistic depictions of children and young girls as sexual beings have recurred throughout history and continue to surface in contemporary society, in both legal and illegal forms... Prepubescent girls are a recurring motif in the work of Balthus. Katia Reading and Girl with a Cat are only a couple of the many pieces that depict young girls partaking in daily activities; their partial nudity, a lifted skirt, a leg splayed open, is a playful whim of childhood that many immediately categorize as intrusion and sexual exploitation. It is most often not the artist�s goal to induce a reaction that is sexual or deviant but to recreate natural beauty, the nude form being the most pure and natural state.

...Humbert�s fascination with nymphets is instigated by the death of his first love, Annabel. A childhood love, she passed away abruptly of typhus before he could take her virginity. A traumatic childhood event, often sexual in nature, is often the catalyst in the development of pedophiliac tendencies. Humbert wishes to manifest the ghost of his eternally chaste love into an Annabel look-a-like, fourteen-year old Dolores Haze, a.k.a. �Lolita�, and his unwavering goal throughout the novel is to claim, or more accurately, reclaim the child as his. This is evident in the first lines of the novel: �Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.� The repetition of �my� demonstrates a master-slave dichotomy. Humbert is both possessive and oppressed by his obsession with Annabel�s doppelganger.

© Copyright Spencer de C, 2007
>> Return to Portfolio