NARRATIVE STRATEGIES IN “LOLITA” AND “WE”

Abstract

The research aims to examine both the similarities and differences in the narrative of the two novels – Nabokov’s “Lolita” and Zamyatin’s “We”. By focusing on common narrative features, I aim to demonstrate the narrator’s ability to manipulate his readers in order to win them over to his side. At the same time, the thesis seeks to show the extent to which the audience is capable of succumbing to the narrator’s attempts to control their understanding, while also revealing the points at which cracks in his argument begin to emerge. Through comparative analysis, the points of contact, as well as the points of divergence between the two texts are revealed. In order to provide the most accurate interpretation, the systems of images used are drawn both from previously published texts from Russian and other literatures and from established archetypes embedded in the two novels.