Perspective

In class, we have just begun reading the book Reading Lolita in Tehran (quick summary) by Azar Nafisi. Initially, I was not too excited about reading this one. A memoir about an Iranian woman professor holding secret book club discussions about literature is generally not my cup of tea. To my surprise, it has held my interest for the most part thus far. I am only 77 pages in, but Nafisi is doing a great job keeping me engaged and thinking about some of the insights she and her class have made and parallels they've drawn.
Reading Reading Lolita in Tehran (haha reading x2) is different from reading other novels. In the book, the women are analyzing literature and making connections and tracking themes and all that good stuff. However, as I read the novel, I am making annotations and drawing conclusions of my own. So, I find that a lot of the time I am analyzing the analyses of all the different women. DOUBLE ANALYSIS! Yeah, pretty crazy. All of these unique perspectives, as well as some of the literary analysis in Reading Lolita in Tehran (RLiT) have inspired me to write this post.

The first section of RLiT is entitled Lolita and discusses the reaction of the women to reading works of literature by Vladimir Nabokov. The two they focus on are Lolita (obvi) and Invitation to a Beheading. One of the themes throughout the section focuses on imprisonment and identity. In Lolita, a twelve-year-old girl (Lolita) is seduced by a middle aged man named Humbert Humbert. He turns Lolita into his fantasy and in that process, confiscates her life. Her identity is relient upon him. She is his prisoner. The book is written from Humbert's perspective, so the readers image of Lolita is inextricably linked to that of Humbert. Quoting Nafisi, "Lolita on her own has no meaning; she can only come to life through her prison bars." Her own self image and perspective is through the lens of Humbert, which is incredibly sad (at least I think so).

Craft-wise, Nabokov has triumphed in choosing Humbert as his narrator. By, seeing the story through his eyes, we are able to understand the degree of Lolita's imprisonment and its implications. A while ago in class, we briefly discussed "personal narratives," identity and the way we view ourselves. In terms of Lolita, it is almost as if Humbert has robbed her of the ability to formulate her own personal narrative and he is writing it for her, where she is his mistress in his sick fantasy. And that's all she is. Here, we can see how the choice of perspective gives some quality insight into the relationship between the characters. In the case of Lolita, it shows the twisted intimacy between victim and jailer.