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Frame Story
Foreword
Explanation and Analysis:
Like many of Nabokov’s other literary works, Lolita is generally regarded as an example of postmodern literature. Rather than telling a straightforward story, Nabokov calls attention to the act of storytelling and blurs the lines between fiction and reality. The “foreword” of the novel, which is in fact part of the fiction of the story, underscores the characteristic irony and playfulness of postmodern literature. In the foreword, the (fictional) editor, Dr. John Ray, describes the process of editing a manuscript written by Humbert Humbert:
Save for the correction of obvious solecisms and a careful suppression of a few tenacious details that despite “H.H.”’s own efforts still subsisted in his text as signposts and tombstones [...] this remarkable memoir is presented intact [...] While “Haze” only rhymes with the heroine’s real surname, her first name is too closely interwound with the inmost fiber of the book to allow one to alter it; nor (as the reader will perceive for himself) is there any practical necessity to do so. References to “H.H.”’s crime may be looked up by the inquisitive in the daily papers for September–October 1952 [...]
Here, John Ray explains that he has made only a few alterations to the text, eliminating certain details that are either obscene or that might reveal the “true” identities of various characters. “Haze,” for example, “only rhymes with” the true name of the girl whose abduction and sexual assault are central to the plot of the novel. Nevertheless, the editor insists that these edits were unnecessary, as the reader might easily look for the true names of characters in the “daily papers,” where Humbert Humbert’s crimes were reported. This foreword plays with the distinction between fiction and reality, presenting the novel as a “real” story written by a man in prison, whose “true” name has been concealed. In fact, this foreword is, like the rest of the novel and its characters, entirely fictional. By presenting the novel in this typically postmodern manner, Nabokov engages in metafiction, a mode of writing that calls attention to the act of writing itself.
Related Themes:
