A Postmodern Cultural Perspective in Lolita and A Streetcar Named DesirePostmodernism emerged as a reaction to the thoughts of modernism and "established modernist systems". (Wikipedia, 2005) Specific to Nabokov's Lolita and Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire is the idea that both novels are written from the perspective of postmodernism as a cultural movement and are broadly defined as the condition of Western society, especially after the world war. II (period in which the novel was written; 1947 for Streetcar and 1955 for Lolita). While modernists viewed people as autonomous (capable of independent rational thought), postmodernists see human identity and thought as the product of culture. (Xenos Christian Association, 2005). The main postmodern assumption here is that culture and society create individuals as well as all their thoughts and attitudes. Lolita and A Streetcar Named Desire both deal with cultural relativism, which is the view that each culture has its own truths that are relevant to them, but not relevant to other cultures. (Wikipedia, 2005)The economic changes, immigration, the expansion of capitalism, the development of mass and popular culture, which result from the post-war period, will also play a great role in defining the cultural perspectives in Nabokov's stories and characters and Williams, but also in defining American culture itself. The main characters act as archetypes of different cultures and symbolize the integration of Europe into the Un...... middle of paper ......Umberto's European ear also revises the American idiom when he talks about the its "Western door" near." (Lolita, p. 179) To conclude, both stories have a strong cultural orientation, resulting from the post-World War II environment, in which a grossly materialistic and insensitive industrial society developed. postmodern assumption that human identity and thought are the product of culture and that culture and society create individuals as well as all their thoughts and attitudes (Xenos Christian Fellowship, 2005), is clearly demonstrated by the consumerist ideals of Lolita and by Blanche's collapse in the new South culture.