The Elitist Scholar and the Unpretentious Teenager Building Consumer Identity in V. Nabokov's Lolita
Abstract:
Developing upon George Ritzer’s research that eventually everything and anything has a potential to become a commodity up for basic consumption (Ritzer, 2003), this research paper will explore the various consumption pat terns of the self-proclaimed scholar (Humbert Humbert) in contrast to those of the young (Lolita) In V. Nabokov’s novel, Lolita. The two main characters (Lolita and Humbert Humbert) manage to construct their respective iden tities by aid of their consumption patterns. Lolita stands as a young person that conforms to the standard of what one might expect from a mid-twentieth-century adolescent. On the other hand, Humbert Humbert always positions himself in contrast to the mainstream current, as he identifies with the concept of the outsider looking in, standing for a corrupted and decadent old Europe. He chooses to differentiate himself from the trivialities of the main stream mostly uneducated society. This comes to contradict Lolita's tendencies for fitting in and conforming with the given norm. The consumption patterns displayed within the narrative offer an insight on the power struggles between Lolita’s inclination towards the low-brow popular culture and Humbert Humbert’s blatant disregard of it. The presentation will analyze the consumerist patterns of the two characters and discuss the clash between them, which actually represents a clash between generations.
