Conflict And Convergence In David Lodge's Three Novels

David Lodge is the celebrated British novelist, literary critic and theorist in 20th century. As a scholarly writer, his Campus novels do not only offer a vivid self-description of western academy and academics but also reflects and refracts the non-academic world outside, presenting us a colorful world. Domestic and foreign scholars have noted Lodge's preference for the binary structure, collage, parody and other post-modern theories, but most of their researches focus on the artistic skills in Lodge's fictions and whether he has practiced his literary theory. Only a few articles attend to the thematic significance of Lodge's novels which has ignored that Lodge is delivering his concern with and thinking on the latter half of the 20th century through the fictional art. This thesis will focus on David Lodge's three novels—Small World, Nice Work and The British Museum is Falling Down in the subject of conflict and convergence.This thesis will explore the theme of conflict and convergence in Lodge's three novels within six chapters, of which the central thesis is rendered in four chapters between introduction and conclusion.The introduction includes four parts, briefly introducing the author and his achievements and works, a critical study of David Lodge abroad and at home, the significance and feasibility of this thesis. Chapter two is a brief introduction to the relevant literary concepts adopted in the following three chapters, such as the carnivalization of Bakhtin, parody, binary structure, etc.The body of this paper consists of the second, third and fourth chapters and each chapter are roughly divided into four parts. The first part is a brief survey of the novel's background, which reflects that the problems in these novels are actually true portrays of the real society. The second and third part is the conflict and convergence expressed in each novel and the artistic forms involved while the fourth is the analysis of Lodge's thinking behind the three novels. Chapter three, on the basis of Small World, discusses Lodge's serious concerns over the conflict between and convergence of highbrow culture and lowbrow culture based on the theory of Bakhtin's carnivalization and parody. Britain in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with the occasion of multiculturalism. Under the great impact of the thriving popular culture, the scholars stepped out of the"ivory tower"and joined in the"global school". In this situation, Lodge integrates the popular culture considered as marginal and lowbrow into his creations, expressing his wish to dispel the estrangement of the two cultures and cross the boundary.Chapter four centers round the conflict and convergence between industrial culture and campus culture in Nice Work through the theory of binary structure. In the 1970s and 80s, the British economy was in recession and universities could not make ends meet, what's worse, Thatcher government began to cut financial expenditure of universities and encourage them to raise funds by connecting with local industry. In this context, the campus culture and industry culture represented respectively by Robyn and Vic conflicts, understands and integrates during the mutually contact. Through this novel, Lodge advocates that the academic elites should put aside their superior attitude and integrate with society as a whole so as to achieve a win-win outcome.Chapter five explores the conflict between and convergence of Roman Catholic'"birth control"and the modern life of the followers based on the reading of The British Museum is Falling Down. As the science and technology in modern times make a big improvement, anything involved with religion and Catholic has faced with many challenges. The reformation and modernization is also responsible for this phenomenon. In the novel, Lodge conceives the protagonist Adam's experiences in a day to deliver the conflict through the artistic form of comic and he points out that people should not blindly follow the Catholic doctrine nor give up on religion or discard the pursuit of goodness.In the conclusion, as a responsible writer and critic, Lodge is very adept at observing the problems in society and runs his ideal through creations. In these works, what he wants to convey is not conflict but how to deal with or solve these problems. Therefore, he has put slight hope in his creations expecting that people in the complex society can have the courage to face the social problems and pursue the truth, kindness and beauty. In a brief word, what he would like to convey is convergence rather than conflict.