My dissertation, a self-reflective autoenthnography investigates, examines, analyzes, and critiques Lolita-like or eroticized girl representations in popular visual culture. Using a non-academic voice, I construct a novelistic research narrative that is critically grounded in Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (1958), and I format the dissertation to mirror the structure of his book. My study investigates sociocultural beliefs about gender, authority, and erotic narratives inscribed onto girls. I write reflexively from multiple positions: girl, artist, woman, wife, mother, teacher, and scholar. I weave in and out of my narrative with identity-based reflective commentary, journal excerpts, and artifacts I made showing that research is fluid, collaborative, and influenced by many things outside of collected data.
Central to my study is the belief that Dolores Haze, the 12-year-old girl known as Lolita, should be heard. I question those who have had authority over her story, offer alternative voices, trouble and disrupt tacit understandings, while arguing for a critical shift in her mythic reputation. By following the teleological development of the Lolita phenomenon, I locate and identify ruptures that assist in the acculturation of her myth. An interdisciplinary literature review focuses on the eroticization of prepubescent bodies in multiple sites; including teen magazines, advertising, fashion, Lolita porn, and art photography. I posit that sexualizing girls in popular visual culture, a normalized and socioculturally accepted depiction, has broad social implications that should be recognized. In creating artifacts, I critically dismantle, alter, and re-imagine Lolita-like popular culture representations. Finally, I suggest visual culture curriculum that examines and critiques mythic or persuasive cultural narratives, while empowering student voices.