An Analysis Of Narrative Arts In Thinks…

The works of the British writer David Lodge(1935-) often talk about phenomena of western academia. Lodge’s Thinks… is an academic novel that focuses on the consciousness issue in cognitive science. In the novel, Lodge makes his two protagonists(Ralph and Helen) speak for science and humanities respectively and hold an intense discussion about consciousness. Ralph insists that scientific knowledge is the only form of real knowledge that can uncover the consciousness enigma, namely, how to give an objective, third-person account of subjective, first-person phenomena of consciousness. Helen, on the other hand, is convinced that literature is also a kind of real knowledge which has an advantage in describing human consciousness. In this controversy, Lodge has a satirical intention towards those arrogant scientists and takes a firm stance to support humanities.The narrative techniques in Thinks… play a very important role in reflecting Lodge’s intention and stance. This thesis will analyze the narrative arts of the novel in the light of philosophy of mind, especially of Searle’s intentionality theory and consciousness theory. In terms of the narrative time, Lodge makes full use of analepsis,repetition and pause to adjust the order, frequency and duration of the narrative time. In this way, he makes the narrative time serve his satirical intention. As to the narrative perspectives, Lodge mainly uses first-person perspective and third-person perspective.With the first-person perspective, Lodge shows the value of literature in portraying human consciousness. Of the third-person perspective, Lodge first uses objective narration that only offers external descriptions to reveal the weakness of scientific knowledge; he then uses omniscient narration in the novel to challenge the scientific view that how to give a third-person account of subjective consciousness is still left unsolved. Thus, Lodge proves that literature is more advanced than science in describing consciousness.This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is a brief introduction to David Lodge, Thinks…, the research status of Thinks… at home and aboard, the theoretical perspective, and the layout and significance of this thesis. The secondchapter generalizes three consciousness-related issues(mind-body problem, qualia, and the self), and analyzes the “consciousness controversy” between science and humanities displayed in the novel. The third chapter adopts intentionality theory to interpret the narrative time of the novel, and points out that the techniques of analepsis, repetition and pause are effective in representing Lodge’s satirical intention towards the arrogant scientists. The fourth chapter analyzes the narrative perspectives of the novel in the light of consciousness theory. Both the objective narration and omniscient narration help Lodge express his unwavering humanistic stance in the “consciousness controversy.” The fifth chapter is a conclusion of this thesis.