| David Lodge is a rebellious conservative. His attitudes towards the various critical theories'in the 20th century, his adherence to realism, his approach to the problems of Catholic teachings in the modern world, his resort to humanistic consolation when Catholic teachings prove not competent enough in the modern world, and his way of dealing with the crises of modern academics'sense of identity, all these reveal the paradoxical nature of Lodge. This dissertation intends to answer the many questions concerning Lodge's role as a writer, a Catholic and an academic, and tries to give a clearer picture of the real Lodge out of the mist of uncertainty.Lodge is a writer of his own kind. His writings fall into two distinct categories, one being academic literary criticism and the other novels. As a literary critic, he ardently argues for the validity of the author and the belief in the meaning and functions of fiction with the help of Bakhtin's dialogic theory, and defends the legitimacy of realism in this changing world which grows ever more hostile to the belief of realism. As a novelist, he practices in person the tenets of realism and, through his incessant experiments, endeavors to enrich the possibilities of realistic literary expression. With the help of Bakhtin's dialogic theory, Lodge takes literary criticism and literary fiction as two distinct discourses involving in a dialogic relationship with each other, and writes many of his novels as critiques upon literary criticism. His being a rebellious and conservative critic and novelist is reflected in the position he takes amid the uproar of various critical voices in the 20th century. As a renowned professor teaching modern English literature and greatly informed of the changes and trends in the field of literary criticism, he is very keen to the development of literary criticism and its influence upon literary creation. While most literary critics follow the flow and are carried away by the currents blindly, he is sober enough to see the danger that the torrents of some modern literary theories may bring upon some of the good old traditions in literary creation. In the modern world, he knows well the ebbs and flows of various literary theories and tries to maintain his own beliefs which he considers worth keeping to ensure the well-being of literary creation.In the changed and changing climate of literary criticism in the 20th century, some of his tenets may seem out of date. However, he claims that since some of the old traditions are beneficial, they should not be discarded. When the poststructuralists claim "the death of the author," Lodge says that this is far from the truth. He holds that the author as a subjective creative entity is one of the most important sources of meaning conveyed by the novel. Different from the structuralists and poststructuralists who tend to reduce an individual novel into a universal structure or into meaningless free play of signs, he claims that each novel may have its own uniqueness in the message it delivers and in its way of delivering the message. Disagreeing with the radical views that urge the novel to revolutionize the world, he sees the danger of this politicization of the novel to annihilate art and holds that the function of the novel is to represent and to interpret life. He incorporates Bakhtin's dialogic theory into his theoretical framework in the hope of bridging the gap between the traditional humanistic concern and some of the new developments in modern humanities. He tries to bring the different discourses into a dialogue, and through this dialogue, to obtain a more holistic understanding of the world. Rebelliously different in the eyes of many of his contemporaries, he shows his allegiance to realism, which is believed by a lot of modern critics to be obsolete and inadequate to represent modern life. With his successful experiments in the forms and techniques of novel expression, he proves that realism is still vigorous and capable of accommodating a large variety of innovative literary techniques and devices. He shows that realism is still very powerful and efficient in representing human life as it is lived. He holds that the relationship between literary criticism and literary creation is dialogic, while most of the theories in the 20th century believe that they are metalanguages speculating over literary works. Quite a lot of his novels are written as metalanguages addressing the problems of criticism when a lot of critical discourses are dramatized and brought into dialogue with his fiction. He believes this dialogic relationship is good for the well-rounded development of both literary criticism and literary creation. As a result, while his efforts to revitalize the tradition of realism and maintain the irreplaceable significance of the author, the meaning and the function of the novels may be quite different from the common practices of his day, his objective is to better protect the human values as bodied forth by realistic literary expression.Lodge is a rebellious and conservative Catholic. This dissertation examines closely his dramatization of the problems and crises of Catholic teachings in the modern world and the dialogue between Catholicism and humanism about the problems of death, eternity and afterlife. The paradoxical nature of Lodge as a Catholic and a humanist can be found in three correlated aspects, i.e. in his attitudes as shown in his novel towards the problems that modern Catholics may meet with in the Post-Vatican II world, in his analysis of the dialogic relationship between Catholic teachings and liberal humanist thoughts, and in his effort to bring in humanistic consolation where Catholicism fails to provide. The 20th century is a very difficult time for believers, especially for those brought up under Catholic teachings or those converted to Catholic Church later in their lives. They are confronted with a series of problems. When the society at large is leading its way to an ever liberating direction of sex freedom, they are asked to maintain abstinent by their church. The problems about sex and birth control strain the Catholics'relationship with their church. They doubt about the infallibility of the church and question how much truth there is in their church's teachings. They ask many different versions of how-far-can-you-go questions, and doubt for what reason and in what manner they can continue their faith.What endangers the Catholic belief to an unprecedented extent are the problem of death and the doubt about the authenticity of paradise and afterlife as originally promised by the Catholic Church. In the modern world, Catholic teachings fail to offer a convincing consolation to its believers when they are in face of death and the doubt of eternity and afterlife. The myth of the Catholic belief in the modern world is challenged and can no longer hold the Catholic world together. When the power of Catholic teachings is ebbing, humanism is brought in to console the unsettled mind. Humanism seems to take over part of the role of the Church and offer consolation and encouragement to the helpless human souls in the disintegrated world. In the search for the meaning of life and death, we see a Lodge who rebelliously questions the validity of Catholic teachings and, when he finds the Church's teaching inadequate to offer consolation, introduces humanism to offer and keep hope for the people.Lodge is a rebellious and conservative academic. This dissertation studies Lodge's awareness of the crisis of identity, which is a result of his "schizophrenic existence" as an academic and a novelist. He then realizes the crisis of identity as a problem prevalent in the modern world. His representation of the universal crises of self and identity of the modern academics is evident in many of his novels. Lodge the intellectual as a rebellious conservative can be seen in his dramatization of the life of the academia and the academics'sense of the crisis of identity. As a professor and a novelist, he knows clearly the ins and outs and ups and downs of the "small world" of the academia. Being an incubator of social changes and the forefront of human exploration, university is no longer an ivory tower. The turmoil in it is as great as that in the society and more sharply felt by the academics. Modern intellectuals are subject to the changes both inside the "small world" of the academia and in the world at large. The self-consciousness of their being academics in the modern world exposes them to the doubts of self and identity. The doubt about their identities as an intellectual in the modern world has awaken them up from their cozy dreams in an ivory tower and alert them to the crisis of identity.In this ever changing world, new forces and influences begin to break into the originally enclosed system of the society. The enclosure of the society is broken and the structure of the society is ruptured. The system on which the sense of identity is built has become flimsy and is no longer stable. The once solid system has become fluid and its established structure is deconstructed and undermined. Consequently, the solid and secure sense of identity which used to be the characteristic of existence in pre-modern time is seriously undercut as well. Throughout the novels, Lodge seems to ask a series of questions allegorically:In a deconstructed society, can the structure be regained? When the defining factors of identity are swapped, is it possible that identities are also interchangeable? Then, if identities are interchangeable, are they still identities in the true sense of the word? And, when the answers to these questions are dubious, does the quest for identity still carry with it the grandeur associated with the knightly quest in the old times? What is more, when the academies do set out on their quest, is the Holy Grail, as a symbol of their goal, in the small world still the old and definite Holy Grail? Or. even the Holy Grail itself has become something evasive and elusive? And if the object of the quest is no longer definite, what then is the meaning of the quest itself?To Lodge, the key to all these questions lies in the quest itself. When the Holy Grail is something unreachable, the quest itself may serve as the best existence of the identity, which is shaped, or reshaped, defined, or redefined in the very process of the quest. This may appear to be quite existential, but in a world where the social structure fails to offer easy possibilities for self-definition, the best way to define an individual's identity is through the person's choice and effort to introduce his/her own self and identity into the community of humanity. It seems that in the upheaval caused by the iconoclastic poststructuralism, only the collective consciousness of humanity offers solid ground upon which any meaningful sense of selfhood can be built. Thus setting out to examine the crisis of identity from a rebelliously satirical and detached point of view, Lodge comes to a solemn and conscientious affirmation of the academics'identity as a piece of the continent of humanity.In conclusion, the real Lodge is someone who is always with a sober mind and will not blindly follow the main stream. When this stream may lead to a disastrous result to encroach upon the continent of human conscience, he will not hesitate to try his best to curb or redirect its flow, and sing for the old traditions and beliefs that he is convinced will better nourish and cherish the experience of human existence. Setting out rebelliously to deal with and mock all the problems that the changes of the modern world have brought upon literature and literary studies, men's belief and sense of identity, Lodge ends up invariably as a kind-hearted and conscientious writer and scholar, preaching and presenting the hope that is the best of human heritages and still cherished by human beings at large. |
