기억의 시학: 나보코프의 『롤리타』를 중심으로

Abstract

The present research was conducted to investigate the various forms and meanings of memory which are identified in 『Lolita』. The paper aims to examine the manifold aspects of personal and cultural memory which Nabokov variously put together in his texts. Also, the study demonstrates how the different factors of memory which construct the structure of 『Lolita』 are aesthetically associated with one another. In this study, the various forms and meanings of memory which appear in Nabokov’s 『Lolita』are classified into four categories. First, the author’s wordplay is based on his memory about charactonym, which is a traditional device of Russian writers. Nabokov’s charactonym, which enhanced the effect of euphony, maximized the effect of wordplay in addition to the scientific term for butterfly that was made by a lepidopterist. Second, the author utilizes the images of characters not only from Russian myths that had been orally handed down, but also Hebrew, Greek, and Roman myths. Nymphet Lolita is similarly formed on the basis of mythic characters such as Rusalka, Lilith, Naiad, and Venus. Thirdly, as an exiled writer, Nabokov recalls his beautiful memories of childhood in his homeland. To him, memories are often analogous to daily journals. His cultural and personal memory of the past are associated with his identity, too. 『Lolita』is a memoir of the author’s times of memory. In Nabokov’s artistic world, Lolita is a metaphor which represents the boyhood that the author misses and simultaneously the symbol of America that he endeavors to discover and pursuits to create new meaning in. Fourthly, as the author’s memory expands to the horizon of epic literature, texts written by earlier writers are parodied or quoted and transformed into his own pieces of work. Nabokov’s pastiche is considered as homage to the works of many writers such as Pushkin, Edgar Allen Poe, Flaubert, and Dostoevsky. This is why critics appraise Nabokov as a post-modernist. In Nabokov’s world of literature, intertextuality is always a crucial concept. His works are produced by combining existing texts with his original texts. Most of his works are “an assemblage of fragments of personal and cultural memories composed for a mutually connected construction.” 『Lolita』was also a novel generated in reaction to existing texts and a new connection with them. Whereas in some pieces existing texts are repeatedly quoted or parodied, 『Lolita』embraces and synthesizes the existing texts. In other words, Nabokov’s usage of quotes and parody is not produced by merely repeating the past in the present time. The existing texts are taken out of the past context and put into a new connection. His literature is not a reemergence of the past, but is creatively written with past memories in a new network (connection) with that past. This aspect of his work also attributes to why his texts are often judged as a mosaic of quotes. However, due to Nabokov’s strong humane and tragic efforts toward art, including his endeavor to confront invincible time and to transcend the limits of time with the magic of words which he believed to be the only salvation, his readers are impressed by his artistic soul. What Nabokov’s artistic soul produced as Lolita has now become a modern myth. When a myth is regarded to be a creation formed in human history rather than a fixed concept, Lolita becomes a myth created by the 20th century. Lolita has now become a common noun referring to a very special type of girl and is a name readily found in the Internet. As Roland Barthes, who defined a myth as parole, once said, “Nabokov is an artist who contributed to giving a form to a separate meaning.” Nabokov is a creator that gave a form to what is buried in the human consciousness and made it into a living myth. Contrast to ancient myths, the Lolita myth that Nabokov created was produced by compiling past memories. This process is an exemplary model of a new myth of writing in the era of postmodernism. In this way, Nabokov perceived that memory is a fundamental factor of literature and enjoyed various games of memory. He was an outstanding artist of memory who demonstrated prominent writings of wordplay. Memory is the essence of 「Lolita』. Therefore, 「Lolita」 is a creative piece of work originated by Nabokov’s words and memories.