The Thinker On The Way

David Lodge is a famous literature critic and writer in present Britain. He is famed for his study on structuralism, Bakhtin and fiction theory. And his fictions also make a hit in the whole world. Campus Trilogy, including Changing Place, Small World and Nice Work, is the magnum opus of his fictions. And Small world is the most important one. It was published in 1984, and described a panorama of present western academe by comedic writing style.Critics always have different opinions on Lodge's fictions, especially Small World. The point is focus on whether Small World is a masterpiece of post-modernism works, or whether Lodge is a real novelist of post-modernism. Author of this paper studies on the text of Small World and other texts written by Lodge, and try to explain that the writing style of Lodge is between post-modernism and realism, and try to explain that the reason is the introspection for tradition and post-modernism by Lodge who is impacted with the tide of post-modernism.This paper consists of five parts. The first part is a resume, including the experiences and works of David Lodge, the present domestic research state, and the purpose of this paper. The second part is about the post-modernism elements in Small world. There are many writing styles and skills that belong to post-modernism in the fiction, but these elements are not only as a form, but also as an object of introspection. The third part is about the realism elements in Small world. There are also many realistic writing styles in the fiction, and the most importance is it explains the traditional humanism and responsibility of an intellect. The forth part is about the reasons of complexity and indeterminacy in the fiction. They are because of the perceive to the crisis of modern society brought by post-modernism. The fifth part explains Lodge's thinking on the crisis, the possibilities to solve the problems and the open attitude to the questions.