THE „COLLECTOR“ AS EXPERIENCE OF EROS AND SEXUALITY IN VLADIMIR NABOKOV’S „LOLITA“ AND JOHN FOWLES’ „THE COLLECTOR“

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the role of Eros and sexuality in the creation of the literary figure and aesthetical type of the collector in the novels The Collector by John Fowles and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.
The syndrome of the collector is a literary entity that I consider a phenomenon connected to the experience of sexuality as a distorted sense of Eros. It creates an ephemeral reality, one which the collector tends to experience strongly, while the individual becomes ― in two different ways ― a collector of the inner and deformed sexual desires that never reach the complexity of Eros.
I shall focus mainly on a hermeneutic approach to prove that, especially in the postmodern literary product, and particularly in novels, Eros and sexuality are a basic key to understanding the complexity of the literary character. The two novels by Fowles and Nabokov to a great extent help to create this synthesized panorama.