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Lolita in Humbert Humbert’s Camera Obscura and Lolita in Vladimir Nabokov’s Camera Lucida

Lolita in Humbert Humbert’s Camera Obscura and Lolita in Vladimir Nabokov’s Camera Lucida This article analyzes two types of visual perception in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955): camera obscura and camera lucida, terms that are taken from photography and painting, respectively. By applying these terms, this article identifies a visual dilemma in how an artist perceives the object during the process of artistic creation—in a sense, a photographer cannot see the object itself at the moment of capturing the exposure, and a painter has to cease looking at the object and depict it from memory. Based on this visual dilemma, this article analyzes the two types of writing in Lolita: Humbert Humbert’s private diary written with his photographic memory and his manuscript for publication, his confession, written with his painterly imagination. This article argues that Humbert’s two ways of inscribing, camera obscura and lucida, fail to capture the full reality of the object because they are both based on his memory and inspiration rather than a vision of reality. Humbert is seized by his own inspiration that has been derived from his illusion, Lolita, that does not necessarily represent the reality of the object, Dolores. These examples epitomize Nabokov’s view that art has no or minimal relation to life. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Comparative Literature Duke University Press

Lolita in Humbert Humbert’s Camera Obscura and Lolita in Vladimir Nabokov’s Camera Lucida

Comparative Literature , Volume 74 (3) – Sep 1, 2022

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Copyright
Copyright © 2022 by University of Oregon
ISSN
0010-4124
eISSN
1945-8517
DOI
10.1215/00104124-9722376
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article analyzes two types of visual perception in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1955): camera obscura and camera lucida, terms that are taken from photography and painting, respectively. By applying these terms, this article identifies a visual dilemma in how an artist perceives the object during the process of artistic creation—in a sense, a photographer cannot see the object itself at the moment of capturing the exposure, and a painter has to cease looking at the object and depict it from memory. Based on this visual dilemma, this article analyzes the two types of writing in Lolita: Humbert Humbert’s private diary written with his photographic memory and his manuscript for publication, his confession, written with his painterly imagination. This article argues that Humbert’s two ways of inscribing, camera obscura and lucida, fail to capture the full reality of the object because they are both based on his memory and inspiration rather than a vision of reality. Humbert is seized by his own inspiration that has been derived from his illusion, Lolita, that does not necessarily represent the reality of the object, Dolores. These examples epitomize Nabokov’s view that art has no or minimal relation to life.

Journal

Comparative LiteratureDuke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2022

References