The Sexuality In David Lodge’s Novels

David Lodge (1935—) is a famous writer and literary critic of the contemporary British literature.When it comes to a series of problems,including sexuality,Lodge always holds a paradoxical view of point for his postmodern perspective.On the one hand,Lodge is not an advocate of the repressed sexual morality of the Catholic Church.On the other hand,he has reservation about the sexual revolution and the application of sexuality in the domain of literature.However,Lodge acknowledges that instinct is irreplaceable for us to reconstruct ourselves and to face the life and death.This thesis,based on the texts of Lodge,concentrating on the common topic sexuality,combing the research results of the past,examines the discourses concerning sexuality which are in Catholicism,in the sexual revolution and in the field of literature.At the same time,the value of sexuality which is confined to context stands out.Through introspecting the sexual repression and the sexual promiscuity in the novels,Lodge wants to make it clear that it is unwise to repress sexuality by logocentric notions or to transform sexuality into a new logos.Instead of the only universal,permanent and objective truth,the truth of sexuality depends on the context.This thesis is divided into five parts.In the Exordium,David Lodge and the researches related to him are introduced.Then,it points out that Lodge is a writer of postmodernism who is keen on sexuality.Chapter One demonstrates that Lodge introspects one pole of sexuality——the sexual repression.He mainly dissects the sexual repression in the Catholic Church’s moral concepts,owing to his background as a Catholic.What controls the sexual morality of the Catholic Church is the logocentric notion that all sexuality is unclean.Confronted with a series of crises,the Catholic Church came up with the safe method which is a paradoxical discourse of sexuality.There is an entire network of power behind the safe method.Chapter Two suggests that Lodge introspects the other pole of sexuality——the sexual promiscuity.As a result of resisting the sexual repression,the sexual promiscuity is mainly manifested in the sexual revolution which belongs to the social realm,and in the abuse of language which involves sexuality in the field of literature.As sexuality enters into more discourses,it becomes the new logos.Chapter Three reveals that the significance of context becomes clear with the deconstruction of logos in Lodge’s novels.Lodge concludes that the truth of sexuality depends on the context.It is beneficial for the divided subject to reconstruct himself or herself through transforming sexual desire into Eros.In addition,when Death Drive takes the responsibility of escaping from pain and relieving tension,Eros and Death Drive are converged.Nevertheless,Lodge emphasizes that we should not give up when faced up with death which is the means of repression.Conclusion summarizes that sexuality has been wandering in all kinds of discourses in the west.Trough thinking over sexuality,Lodge intends to illustrate that sexuality is just a problem instead of an object which should be repressed or a way which can solve all the problems.