Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita” is known for its seductive writing despite its destructive subject matter. How does this novel accomplish such a juxtaposition? How does the novel keep the reader interested despite Humber blatantly attacking Dolores Haze? This essay explores critically explores the technical method which Nabokov uses in “Lolita.” The essay looks to argue that, as a novel standing between the ages of Modernism and Postmodernism, there is an effective distancing occurring between Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze. In other words, the reader’s access to Dolores Haze is constantly disrupted and distanced by Humbert’s invention of Lolita.

This technique is translated into Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same name, looking at how the aesthetics of the novel could transfer from a textual medium into a visual one.