On Parody In David Lodge’s Campus Trilogy

Parody, as an important, even primary literary device in postmodernist fiction, hasbeen drawing critical attention from literary scholars in recent decades. The presentthesis studies the diverse forms of parody used in David Lodge’s campus trilogy. DavidLodge’s campus trilogy comprises of Changing Places, Small World and Nice Work,which shows an extensive use of various kinds of parody. The present thesis tries toprovide a systematic and comprehensive study of Lodge’s parody in his campus trilogywith the method of literature research and comparative textual analysis. It systematicallyformulates the three major kinds of parody in literary parody and its application in thetrilogy, the discourse parody analysis has been rarely touched in the study of Lodge’sparody, whereas this thesis will devote a considerable space for it.The thesis consists of four chapters and a conclusion. Chapter One aims to providea general view of parody and a brief research review of the subject home and abroad.Chapter Two deals with the various ways in defining parody in history and has proposeda definition more inclusive. In addition, the chapter presents a picture of parody throughdifferent theoretical approaches. Kinds and functions of parody are also touched on.Chapter Three discusses the various kinds of parody used in David Lodge’s campustrilogy, i.e., parody of genre, parody of literary text, and parody of discourse. Asdiscourse parody is the primary type of parody in postmodern literature, focus will beon the parody of various discourses (academic discourses, literary-critical discourses,political discourses) in the trilogy. Chapter four analyzes another prominent feature inpostmodern parody, that is, meta-fictional dimension in parody. A theory aboutmeta-fictional parody is introduced at the beginning. Then a case study of the meta-fictional device used in parody in Changing Places is made in light of themeta-fictional theory. The conclusion part summarizes the distinctive features andfunctions of Lodge’s use of parody in his campus trilogy. The most striking features ofthe parody in the trilogy are being comic, critical, inter-textual and meta-fictional. Andthrough the use of parody, the satirizing and critical functions of parody are effected.