The Ecofeminist Reading of Vladimir Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark

This article aims at studying ecofeminism in Vladimir Nabokov’s Laughter in the Dark. Ecofeminism which is a widely-accepted branch of ecological studies deals with the similarities between women and nature in a work of literature. It emphasizes that women and nature are similar in many ways, especially in being manipulated, both physically and spiritually, by men. In the article below one certain identical feature of women and nature is analyzed in a novel by Nabokov: being nurturing and destructive simultaneously. The novel presents two main female characters and this paper shows how each one is attributed to one side of the environment. One of them stands for nurturing motherhood of nature, while the other one represents the destructive side of nature. The logical conclusion of such study is the claim that Nabokov whose Lepidoptera is widely known could not stand indifferent to the chaotic condition of the environment.