Genres In Lolita
The question of whether it is poetry or pornography, a psychological novel or a crime novel, a love story or a confession, cannot have a definite answer because Lolita comprises all these genres in one. The basic generic frame of the novel is certainly prose. Lolita begins with a poetic prose part, which is short and very effective: “LOLITA, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. ” (9) Even the most trivial things are poetry when Humbert is concerned. He converts Lolita’s classmates list into a poem and says: “…there was a mimeographed list of names referring, evidently, to her class at the Ramsdale school.