• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.691-700
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• 2009

"Lolita," a novel by a Russian-American novelist, Vladimir Nabokov, has been the center of controversy since its first publication in 1955. As it gained wide fame across culture, it has exercised a great influence, altered or developed to diverse forms. Lolita, the title of the novel as well as the heroine's name, now takes a significant part in our society through all cultures and is used as various meanings and symbols. The purpose of this study is to reanalyze and reinterpret the current use of Lolita based on the characteristics initially portrayed in Nabokov's novel. The traits of the heroine were categorized into purity, seductiveness, and dualism and the commercial use of each in the mass media and fashion in Korea was closely examined. First, purity was interpreted as the archetypal image of a 12-year-old girl, while seductiveness was construed to involve temptation and enticement, ultimately leading a man astray. The dualism of an under-aged sexualized nymphet delineated in the novel as a poor little girl as well as a depraved temptress was stated as another trait of Lolita.