The Conflict between Ideology and Academia in David Lodge's Campus Novels
The Conflict between Ideology and Academia in David Lodge's Campus Novels

Summary/Abstract: In his Campus Trilogy, David Lodge addresses various issues regarding the connection between the personal lives of the university professors and their academic image. As he is a Literature Professor, Lodge has a thorough knowledge of this field and presents ironically the discrepancies between the ideologies taught and supported by an academic and the private way of life embraced by the same person. This paper focuses on several characters from David Lodge's three Campus Novels – Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975), Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) and Nice Work (1988) – analyzing the manner in which they reconcile, or fail to, their academic ideology and their actual existence. One of the characters chosen is an Italian Marxist and two others are very strong-willed Feminists, one is British and the other American. The feminist characters are contrasted and compared to other female characters in the novels, in order to emphasize their beliefs and their actions which are in accord with these beliefs (or not, as the cases may be).

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