Loving Lo: The Dialectic of Self-Transcendence and Self-Assertion as Illuminated by the Literary Art of Nabokov's Lolita
Graduation Date
Spring 2004
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
First Reader
Philp Novak, PhD
Second Reader
Jan Van Stavern, PhD
Abstract
This thesis explores the opposition between self-assertive and self-transcending needs within the human condition using Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, Lolita, for illustrative purposes. I argue that the human quest for meaning and fuller humanity hinges on finding a balance between our need for autonomous selfhood and our need to be part of a larger reality, a balance that paradoxically requires us to surrender the self that we have struggled to establish. Using Lolita to explore this dynamic process, the thesis integrates aesthetics, religion, and depth psychology in a philosophical analysis of the human dilemma.
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