“A medley of voices”, polyphonie et discours rapportés dans Lolita de Nabokov

Abstract

Using the notion of polyphony in literature, this article studies the function of reported speeches and voices in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. After showing the many ways through which the main characters’ voices are described and shown in the novel, the article analyses textual and stylistic devices used by the narrator to keep the other characters’ voices, words and syntax at a distance from his own speech. In spite of the narrator’s permanent control over the texture of his narrative, a final part shows how idioms and strongly-featured voices finally blend, thus accounting for the evolution of the hero’s relation to his environment and to the other characters