The Grotesque : a Nabokovian aesthetic lens

Abstract

The following thesis will delineate the Grotesque as a literary mode with an avid and meticulous tracing of its attributes in works of Vladimir Nabokov. The Grotesque will be discussed as a metamorphosing metaphor and aesthetic orphan with reference to Geoffrey Harphams On the Grotesque and Wolfgang Kaysers The Grotesque in Art and Literature. To support this argument, a thematic and stylistic parallelism will be drawn between Nabokovs Lolita, Pale Fire, and Despair. The main aim of this thesis is to argue the indispensable factor of the uncanny, as embraced in the grotesque mode, in rendering works such as Nabokovs aesthetically perennial.