『롤리타』에서 험버트 험버트는 자신에 대한 연민 유발을 위해 님펫 과의 애절한 사랑이라는 감상적 상황을 설정하여 고백록을 기술한다. 이것은 험버트의 님펫극이라고 명명될 수 있는 주관적이며 자의적인 서술을 상당부분 포함하는 것이다. 그의 주인공이 가진 진실성의 문제 를 작가는 독자에게 알리려 한다. 그러나 작가는 그의 주인공의 숨겨진 의도를 독자에게 직접적이고 공개적으로 노출시키는 것이 아니라, 간 접적이며 암시적인 방법을 사용한다. 다시 말해 독자의 수준에 따라 주 인공의 진면목을 차등적으로 인식하게 하는 독자 대상의 유희를 시도 하는 것이다. 『롤리타』는 화자-주인공에 의한 독자기만과 작가에 의한 독자와의 유희로 점철되어 있는 고백록이자 적극적인 독자참여소설인 것이다. 『롤리타』의 주된 요소인 작가와 주인공과 독자의 삼자 관계에서 독 자가 기만의 대상이자 유희의 대상이라는 것은 나보코프의 문학관을 가장 직접적으로 설명할 수 있는 것이다. 『롤리타』에는 험버트의 연극, 퀼티의 연극, 롤리타의 연극, 그리고 작가의 연극이라 명명할 수 있는 네 개의 연극적 관계가 등장한다. 나보코프는 여기에서 연극이라는 장 르가 가지고 있는 속성들, 특히 기만과 유희라는 특성을 활용하여 그의 문학관을 전개한다. 이러한 측면에서 『롤리타』의 연극 구조는 이 작품 에 나타나는 기만적 의도와 유희적 의도가 동시에 조화를 이루는 토대 가 될 뿐만 아니라, 작가의 문학관에도 합치되는 가장 적절한 장치라고할 수 있다.

Many would agree with the comment that for Nabokov writing for the stage was like playing chess without his queen. Some of his major strengths as a prose writer were severely undercut by the generic demands of drama. As he wrote ‘a play is an ideal conspiracy’, the magic of theatre was almost too powerful for Nabokov even as a prose writer. Humbert Humbert writes his confession to take readers’ compassion on himself under the sentimental condition of pathetic love story with a nymphet. It contains many of subjective and arbitrary description, which names as the nymphet theatrical of Humbert. Like so many romantic dreamers before him, Humbert is captivated by an ideal image or vision. The fantasized nymphet here is the primary source and object of Humbert’s desire. The author of Lolita tries his readers to give fair warning that his protagonist is a man of suspectable reliability. However, the warning takes not the form of open and direct but the form of indirect and suggestive. In other words, he tries to play at a game with his readers, according to the level of their taking warning about the deception. Lolita is a work of confession, which is filled with the narrator’s deceptive intention to the readers as well as the author’s game with them. The fact that the reader becomes an object for the deception as well as the game explains most directly Nabokov’s weltanschauung. There are four theatricals in Lolita, such as that of Humbert, Quilty, Lolita, and the author. Nabokov spreads out in Lolita a wide panorama of his literary worldview, using a property of the genre of theatre, especially deception and play. From this point of view, the theatrical structure of Lolita becomes a common ground for both the intention of deception and that of play, combining with the author’s weltanschauung. Many readers are more troubled by Humbert Humbert's use of language and lore than by his abuse of Lolita and the law. Nabokov says, in Lectures on Literature, a major writer combines all three kinds of novelists - storytellers, teachers, and enchanters; but it is the enchanter in him, that predominates, and makes him a major writer in Lolita. It is for him the enchanter, who ultimately creates a new fictional universe, since all art, like that “good cheat” nature, is deceptive. This is the reason why the novel's playful structure does not obviate but rather enhances an understanding of the human dimensions of Nabokov's art.

Many would agree with the comment that for Nabokov writing for the stage was like playing chess without his queen. Some of his major strengths as a prose writer were severely undercut by the generic demands of drama. As he wrote ‘a play is an ideal conspiracy’, the magic of theatre was almost too powerful for Nabokov even as a prose writer. Humbert Humbert writes his confession to take readers’ compassion on himself under the sentimental condition of pathetic love story with a nymphet. It contains many of subjective and arbitrary description, which names as the nymphet theatrical of Humbert. Like so many romantic dreamers before him, Humbert is captivated by an ideal image or vision. The fantasized nymphet here is the primary source and object of Humbert’s desire. The author of Lolita tries his readers to give fair warning that his protagonist is a man of suspectable reliability. However, the warning takes not the form of open and direct but the form of indirect and suggestive. In other words, he tries to play at a game with his readers, according to the level of their taking warning about the deception. Lolita is a work of confession, which is filled with the narrator’s deceptive intention to the readers as well as the author’s game with them. The fact that the reader becomes an object for the deception as well as the game explains most directly Nabokov’s weltanschauung. There are four theatricals in Lolita, such as that of Humbert, Quilty, Lolita, and the author. Nabokov spreads out in Lolita a wide panorama of his literary worldview, using a property of the genre of theatre, especially deception and play. From this point of view, the theatrical structure of Lolita becomes a common ground for both the intention of deception and that of play, combining with the author’s weltanschauung. Many readers are more troubled by Humbert Humbert's use of language and lore than by his abuse of Lolita and the law. Nabokov says, in Lectures on Literature, a major writer combines all three kinds of novelists - storytellers, teachers, and enchanters; but it is the enchanter in him, that predominates, and makes him a major writer in Lolita. It is for him the enchanter, who ultimately creates a new fictional universe, since all art, like that “good cheat” nature, is deceptive. This is the reason why the novel's playful structure does not obviate but rather enhances an understanding of the human dimensions of Nabokov's art.

Lolita/ deception/ play/ theatre/ nymphet/ Vladimir Nabokov