The Journey To Self-identity-A Study Of The Characters In Kingsley Amis’ S Novels

Kingsley Amis, a celebrated modern British novelist. The Times ranked K ingsley Amis ninth on their list of the top 50 British writers since 1945. What’s more, he was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize three times. In all, K ingsley Amis is a writer of great influence.The previous research has been centered on Lucky Jim. In fact, his other two masterpieces(Take a Girl like You, That Uncertain Feeling) are also of great research value for literary study. In recent years, as one of the key words of contemporary literary theory as well as an important concept of western cultural studies, “identity” has already aroused intense interest of many scholars from differ ent fields. However, few scholars have done research on the self- identity issue in Amis’ s works. Thus, “self-identity” becomes the cutting point of the present study.The author of this thesis intends to interpret K ingsley Amis’ s three works Lucky Jim, Take a Girl like You and That Uncertain Feeling by means of identity theory to study three protagonists’ journey to self-identity. Specifically, the author tries to discuss the topic from three aspects: social identity, gender identity and family identity.This thesis is divided into five chapters:The first chapter is an introduction to my dissertation including a review of the researches on K insley Amis in academic c ircle and identity theories. The second chapter mainly discusses how the main character—Jim Dixon achieves his self- identity in society in Lucky Jim. The third chapter examines how the heroine achieves her self- identity by the means of gender identity in Take a Girl like You. The fourth chapter analyses how the protagonist realizes his self- identity in family in That Uncertain Feeling. The last C hapter is a conclusion of the research, covering an evaluation of the findings. Enlightened by identity theories, this paper concludes that measured by the external and internal forces, the three characters free themselves from old identity, then gradually form new identity, and finally have a successful practice in the course of self-identity.