Aestheticism, Nabokov, and Lolita

This study has three revisionary goals. The first is to offer a major revaluation of aestheticism as a literary and historical idea, demonstrating that it is not limited to ‘art for art's sake'. Second, it reexamines Nabokov in the light of his aestheticism, reconciling two major trends in Nabokovian criticism by showing that Nabokov is at once an aesthete and a humanist. Third, it offers a revisionary reading of Lolita, focusing on aestheticism. In addition, it provides a groundbreaking essay that compares three adaptations of Lolita: Nabokov's screenplay, Stanley Kubrick's film, and Adrian Lyne's recent film.