A Study On Nice Work From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

David Lodge, the distinguished British novelist and critic, is one of the mostoutstanding writers on the contemporary British as well as world literary stage. Due to hisidentity as a university teacher and writer, he serves as both an insider and an observer ofBritish higher education. His unique humor, bitter satire and deep insight draw him a lot ofcritics’ and readers’ attention. His novels, especially the campus trilogy, impress his readersa lot and massive studies have been made on them. Nice Work, published in1988, is the lastof Lodge’s campus trilogy and it has been interpreted by critics and scholars both at homeand abroad from various perspectives. However, no one has applied the approach of ethicalliterary criticism to study Nice Work. This thesis tries to analyze Nice Work from theperspective of ethical literary criticism in order to make a better interpretation of Lodge’sconcern of moral values.As a writer with great social responsibilities, David Lodge infuses his novels withplentiful ethical connotations. He integrates his ethical ideas with all kinds of relationshipsin Nice Work and shows various ethical problems in modern society. The thesis adopts threeof the four layers of relationship summarized by Li Dingqing to analyze the ethicalconnotations of Nice Work on the basis of close reading. By exploring the ethical factors inhuman-society relationship, human-other relationship and human-self relationship, thisthesis finds that Lodge criticizes the moral degeneration and crisis of different relationshipsand sheds light on moral values of contemporary society.This thesis is divided into five parts. Part One includes introduction of David Lodgeand Nice Work, literature review of previous studies, theory of ethical literary criticism andthesis statement of present study. In Part Two, this thesis analyzes the pursuit of truth interms of human-society relationship and finds that human-society relationship is notharmonious with moral degeneration and neglect of humanistic spirit. Lodge criticizes the alienation of people in many ways and calls on people to use their subjective initiativeproperly so as to make joint efforts to create a harmonious society. Part Three analyzes thepursuit of good in terms of human-other relationship and exposes that relationships amongpeople of different genders, ages, cultures and races are intense. The best way to connectpeople is to advocate mutual love and trust. Part Four studies the most complex relationship,human-self relationship, with the pursuit of sublimation and draws the conclusion thatpeople who desire to become better can reach sublimation through self-salvation,self-reflection, love and self-independence. The last part is the conclusion of this thesis. InNice Work, Lodge emphasizes such moral notions as mutual love, trust, understanding,self-reflection, etc. which integrate into love and connection. Hence, Lodge comes up withlove and connection as the solution to all problems.