The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

child. In fact, in regard to the contemporary Cult of the Lolita, Hannah
Feldman has noted that “[w]hat is so striking about this phenomenon is not
that [the new] Lolita is a sex object, even a wilful one as the legend goes but
that she is actually a child”,
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and if she is not actually then she is visually.
Indeed in regard to the Lolita subculture, my argument is that the
association of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita with the Gothloli is confounded.
The fictional character, Lolita, is interpreted as a child with adult feelings;
the Japanese Lolita, or Gothloli, represents an adult or young woman with
childish sensibilities.
In discussing Nabokov’s Lolita and any possible links to the Lolita
subculture, 23-year-old Gothloli “Duplica” poses the question, “What is a
† Lolita?”. She believes that “1. [She is] a young girl who [arguably] wants to
attract older guys [and]; 2. [She is] an adult woman who wants to look like a
young girl”. ‡
* Feldman, as I explain again later, does not discuss the Japanese Lolita, specifically. Her article is
on the Cult of Lolita from the 1990s, which examines the interest in the Sexualised Little Girl, or
the “new” Lolita, in contemporary Fine Art.
† Personal communication between “Angelic Lolita” and “Duplica” (Germany) on MySpace,
www.myspace.com/botticelliangel_nz, 16 January, 2010
‡ Ibid.
In contemplating Nabokov’s heroine she again asks, “What is
Dolores [Lolita] in the book?”, claiming:
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