Fictitious Reality And Actuality

Vladimir Nabokov is an extraordinary Russian-born American novelist, poet, critic,translator, stylist and lepidopterist. He is considered as one of the most influential writers ofthe20thcentury. Nabokov has created numerous works during his lifetime. Among them,Lolita is the most controversial and the most well-known one. Immediately after thepublication of Lolita, it becomes the best seller and brings great fame and reputation toNabokov as well.Scholars and literary critics abroad and at home have researched on Lolita from variousperspectives, such as the aesthetic and philosophical viewpoints of the author, the morality,themes, artistry of the novel, and the characters’ abnormal psychic conditions and etc.However, former scholars have only described the abnormality of the characters withoutproposing the underlying reason for that, which is trauma. What is more, they have notconsidered the experiences of the author Nabokov and the protagonists in the novel as anorganically connected entirety.This thesis studies on the traumas of the protagonists Humbert and Lolita in Lolita aswell as the author Nabokov with the application of the theory of trauma. In the novel,Humbert and Lolita encounter with their respective traumas and live under the shadow oftraumas all along. In reality, Nabokov is a trauma victim who finally defeat trauma with anactive attitude.Six parts are involved in the thesis. They are Introduction, four main chapters andConclusion.In the introduction, Nabokov, Lolita, and the researches on the novel abroad and in Chinaare introduced. Then, the significance of the thesis is pointed out: by using the theory of trauma as a point of departure, it analyzes the traumas of Humbert, Lolita and Nabokov, andthus clarifies that there exists positive aspect in trauma; trauma impels people to grow up.Chapter One is the theoretical foundation of the thesis, in which the theory of trauma isexpounded explicitly. The theory of trauma has developed for over a hundred years. It mainlypays attention to the long-term or even life-lasting physical and psychological influences onthe trauma victims caused by shocking traumatic events. Though trauma brings aboutextremely painful experiences to the traumatized, they can get recovery through effectivetreatment.Chapter Two contains an analysis on the trauma of Humbert. In the first part, boyhoodtraumatic events Humbert comes across when he is a youngster are described, which are hismelancholy first love altogether with the frustrated desire. The second part focuses onanalyzing the devastation to Humbert’s mind as a result of trauma. Traumatic events makeHumbert unable to escape from intrusions of traumatic memory and torments of pedophile,and directly lead to his tragic life. The third part illustrates that the tragedy of Humbert isascribed to his irrecoverable trauma. The reason why his trauma remains irrecoverable isbecause that he refuses to admit that he is a trauma victim, and speaks defensive words for hisabnormal psychology.Chapter Three illustrates the trauma of Lolita. Throughout her lifetime, she is afflicted byprolonged and repeated traumas, and such trauma takes place in a state of captivity; youngLolita is imprisoned by her mother in her detached treatment, and later, Humbert brings Lolitainto the captivity of two-year sexual abuse. Lolita has no chance to escape from theseincessant traumas. All these sufferings severely twist her developing personality, and preventher from living like an ordinary pubescent girl. Thus it is a doomed miserable end that iswaiting for Lolita who is unable to recover from trauma.Chapter Four exhibits Nabokov’s process from trauma to recovery. In reality, Nabokov experiences traumas of first love, exile and the discord between psychological time andphysical time. However, he can keep a peaceful mood, establish comparatively tranquilenvironment, and reconstruct trauma story through literary creation, which are all helpful tohis recovery. This specific remedy cures his trauma. Literary creation is an especially crucialsegment of this remedy. It is a good medicine not only for him, but also for other traumatizedhuman beings.Based on the above analysis, a conclusion can be made as followed: trauma brings manyagonies to human beings indeed. However, to some degree, agony is more real than happiness,because trauma makes people more conscious of the actual existence of their own, moresensitive to the outer world, and makes them gain more experience from it. Trauma promotespeople to rediscover themselves and reevaluate things around them. After walking out oftrauma, human beings can get rebirth like the reborn phoenix.