Humbert's Strange Love: Sexuality Through the Historical Time Frames of Lolita

Abstract

This paper will explore and analyze various discussions of the historical context in which Nabokov's Lolita was written, to establish a comprehensive notion of the post-war consciousness of the novel. Firstly, it will review Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic interpretation of the Cold War in Dr.Strangelove, interpreting its theme of sex as an extension of Kubrick’s adaptation of Lolita. Subsequently, this concept is extended to the premise about “the sexualization of nuclear technology” in Lolita’s 1950s setting. Finally, Humbert’s obscure European background and his obsession with the human body. Moving from the 1960s to the Second World War, this paper intends to show how, through the different time frames, the theme of sexuality exposes the backbone of Lolita: the “secret points” and “subliminal co-ordinates” of Humbert’s strange love.