"Knowing" Lolita: Sexual Deviance and Normality in Nabokov's Lolita

Lolita exposes the volatility and relativity of the binary of "deviant" and "normal" sexuality prevalent in 1950s America. Like Alfred Kinsey's "reports," Lolita challenges assumptions about what constitutes "normal" sexuality. Although it parodies the new science of sexology made famous by the Kinsey reports, it opposes a scientific perspective of a potentially "normal" Lolita to Humbert's mythological framework for her—a framework that turns her into a specially depraved "nymphet" who "seduces" Humbert. The scientific perspective of Lolita the novel subtly makes available exposes the misogyny of Humbert's mythic perspective.