Post-lolitism: the Lolita’s Legacy in the XXI’s Indie Cinema

Abstract

La Belle Personne (Christophe Honoré, 2008), Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) and The Diary of a Teenager (Marielle Heller, 2015), up to its germ: Lolita (1955), a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and adapted to the great screen by Stanley Kubrick in 1962. From this connection, I analyze the final aspects of this new postlolita, framing the character in a concrete narrative journey and a conscious feminist discourse. The trip consists of three key moments: a first contact, the sexual encounter and the liberation from the situation of oppression. As for the feminist discourse, it reviews the figure of the postlitas as an object of desire, in addition to the relationship with the adult and the sexual initiation of young people. These three movies suppose the reinterpretation of the myth that Kubrick creates in his film. Also, this new reading of lolistism refers to the feminine appropriation of a discourse that has been exploited almost exclusively by men. This, added to the manifestation of not depending on the male figure to achieve happiness make The Diary of a teenager the ultimate expression of this new postlolita.