Metonymic And Metaphoric Modes Of Discourses In The Trilogy Of David Lodge's Academic Novels

As a distinguished contemporary writer-critic, David Lodge shows strong formalist orientation in his fictional writings. Until now, various studies from various perspectives have been made on the art of his fiction. Yet, the studies of the textual strategies Lodge practiced in his novels, especially in his academic novels, namely, Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses, Small World: An Academic Romance and Nice Work, show that the metonymic and metaphoric mode of discourses is not touched upon. Therefore, the present thesis attempts, by alluding to Lodge's own discussions of metonymy and metaphor as its theoretical basis, to make a study of the metonymic and metaphoric modes of discourses in each of his three academic novels which are the representatives of his literary creations. The purpose of the thesis is to arrive at an interpretation of Lodge's textual strategies in representing the contemporary world. Lodge's artistic manipulation of the metonymic and metaphoric modes of discourses makes"significant forms", contributing to the thematic implications in each of these novels and revealing the author's cognitive styles in his understanding of the world. This thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter One is an introduction that lays the foundation for this thesis. It starts from the brief introduction of Lodge's self-consciousness, followed by a general literature review of both the theory of metonymic and metaphoric discourses and Lodge's trilogy of academic novels, to make clear the argument and significance of this thesis.Chapter Two aims to analyze the construction of the metonymic and metaphoric modes of discourses in Changing Places. It finds that the metonymic discourse takes the leading role in this novel, with the metaphoric discourse implied in its development . According to Lodge, modernist writing is metaphoric, and realistic writing is metonymic. So the dialogue between the metonymic and metaphoric discourses also betrays the dialogue between these two writings. The more emphasis Lodge lays on the metonymic mode in this novel adds much realistic color to the novel.Chapter Three takes Lodge's second academic novel Small World as the object of study, trying to unveil his priority of the metaphoric discourse over the metonymic one. The metaphoric discourse is actually realized by two parallel metonymic discourses in this novel. The metonymic and metaphoric modes of discourses are again in dialogic relationship. Chapter Four makes an exploration of the metonymic and metaphoric modes of discourses in Lodge's third academic novel, Nice Work. The dialogic state of the two discourses in this novel is established in the way that the novel starts from the construction of a metaphoric discourse, and leads finally to the development of a metonymic one. It accords to the theme of"enstrangement-communication"in the novel. The specific way of constructing metonymic and metaphoric discourses in this novel gives testimony to Lodge's return to the realistic writing in his writing career in its own way.The thesis comes to an end in Chapter Five with the conclusion that Lodge expresses his perception of the world with his unique ways of constructing metonymic and metaphoric modes of discourses in his three academic novels. His return to the metonymic discourse explains Lodge's adherence to the realistic tradition of English literature and his individualized application in his novels.