Three Modes Of Modern Writing In David Lodge's Major Fiction

David Lodge is an internationally renowned British writer whose novels have received much critical acclaim in his home country, as well as in America, France, China, and many other countries. He is also a highly respected literary scholar and critic whose many books have influenced the development of modern British literature. Both his novels and his criticism reflect his intense concern with literature's relevance and compelling appeal in modern life.This dissertation seeks to analyze systematically three twentieth-century modes of writing—modernism, postmodernism, and antimodernism—in three of Lodge's major works that come from different periods of his literary career. The three novels, The British Museum is Falling Down, Small World and Paradise News, have been chosen because they clearly reveal the path of his literary development. The dissertation analyzes how Lodge selectively and creatively uses certain techniques to develop a poetics of fiction that offers a viable alternative for the future development of modern fiction. It has sought to show that in The British Museum is Falling Down and Small World Lodge has successfully experimented with modernism and postmodernism in his quest for an original voice. A later novel, Paradise News, was chosen to show the development of his mature style, which he has called"antimodernism."This dissertation argues that in his self-described antimodernist style Lodge essentially rejects the excessive experimentation of modern fiction and revives the best of traditional realism, while incorporating certain modernist and postmodernist techniques. This dissertation consists of three main chapters, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion.The introduction undertakes a critical survey of Western and Chinese literary scholarship on Lodge. Some critics seem to focus on the question of whether Lodge is primarily a realist or modernist. Others discuss the importance of parody and humor in his fiction. Yet others stress themes and stylistic devices in various works. These approaches do not sufficiently take into account Lodge's evolution as a writer. This dissertation has sought to show that Lodge is above all a versatile and eclectic writer who never confines himself totally to any existing literary mode. By examining how Lodge accepts or rejects certain literary influences, this dissertation attempts to show how he created his mature literary style. The introduction also discusses Lodge's own views on the poetics of fiction. His critical writings suggest that his preoccupation with the future of the modern novel motivates much of his experimentation with literary modes.Chapter One, after discussing the distinguishing characteristics of modernism, seeks to show that in The British Museum is Falling Down Lodge departs from traditional realism by introducing some modernist innovations. Using the modernist conceptions of subjective time and stream of consciousness—developed through free indirect style, interior monologue and free association—he guides readers into his tragicomic yet sympathetic anti-hero's inner world. Lodge employs the modernist device of multiple perspectives, making the omniscient and impersonal narration yield to the focused and personal viewpoint of the characters. Like many modernist writers, Lodge ends his novel on a note of uncertainty, without resolving any of his character's frustrations and dilemmas. In this novel an important motif is his insight into the craft of fiction and the blurred boundaries between life and art, as well as his concern with the difficulty of achieving originality in modern writing. His artistic self-consciousness foreshadows his evolving fascination with literary experimentation.Chapter Two discusses the salient features of postmodernism and examines these four typical elements—its outlook on life and its use of intertextuality, metafiction and the carnivalesque. This analysis shows that Lodge is a master of using postmodernist techniques themselves for satirical ends. The novel is a satire of academia that criticizes postmodernism's dark vision of the lack of meaning in human life and the futility of human endeavor. In developing the novel's theme and structure, Lodge skillfully uses the postmodernist technique of intertextuality in his parody of the Arthurian legends and other myths, as well as literary classics. The postmodernist technique of metafiction is employed to ridicule the extremes of postmodernist theories. The carnivalesque spirit, a typical feature of postmodernism, becomes a satiric vehicle for exposing the absurdities of academic careerism. The satiric treatment of postmodernism in Small World shows his concern about the degeneration of fiction and criticism into a self-indulgent game that ignores broader humanist concerns. This perception foreshadows his subsequent turn to antimodernism.In examining Paradise News as an antimodernist novel in Chapter Three, this dissertation first establishes that Lodge's use of the term"antimodernism"differs from its widespread use in Western sources. Western cultural historians use the term to describe a world view that rejects the importance of technology and material progress in modern life. In contrast, Lodge uses this word to describe the style that he evolved after successfully experimenting with modernist and postmodernist literary modes. As this dissertation shows, this style reflects his growing appreciation for traditional realism and his eclectic choice of modernist and postmodernist devices. His antimodernist mode clearly rejects the postmodernist nihilistic world view and excessive experimentation. It affirms the realist writer's obligation to deal with universal themes, to offer moral guidance, and to create believable characters with whom the reader can identify. But as this dissertation has sought to show, his antimodernist style, by selectively incorporating such elements as interior monologue, collage, and cinematic effects, has a subtle message. The modern writer should feel free to take the best of the old and the new to achieve his literary objectives.This dissertation concludes that Lodge is equally successful in his versatile and eclectic use of modernism and postmodernism and in his creation of antimodernism. The evolution of his literary style toward antimodernism clearly reflects his desire to find an original voice. But Lodge's enduring contribution to British literature may turn out to be his courage in challenging the extremes of the literary avant-garde and his sense of mission about rescuing modern literature from the"small world"of literary professionals and about reaffirming its cultural importance in the modern world. In this respect Lodge epitomizes the dynamic creativity and stylistic diversity of modern British literature.