Profane illumination as the axis of development of literary plot – exemplified by Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita

Abstract

The article presents an interpretation of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita through Walter Benjamin’s concept of profane illumination. Using Mikhail Bakhtin’s concepts of chronotope and Gaston Bachelard’s poetic resonance, it is shown that the moment of the experience of profane illumination by the main character of Lolita can be seen as an axis organizing the further development of the novel’s plot, as well as shaping the time-space of the presented world. The text combines the concept of profane illumination with the context of post-romantic epiphanic art and also shows Lolita’s connections with the paradigm described by Charles Taylor. Additionally, threads of postmodern irony and Freudian psychoanalysis are introduced, supplementing the diagnoses with remarks on the genre affiliation of the described novel and the nature of the narrator’s relationship with the reader.