ACADEMY: HUMOR AND CRITICISM. DAVID LODGE’S CHANGING PLACES. A TALE OF TWO CAMPUSES AND THE ART OF FICTION

Abstract

The "academic novel" or "campus novel" emerged after the World War II in Great Britain and The United States of America, and has evolved according to contextual circumstances. Located in university environments, conflict, intrigue and anecdotes representing this type of texts reveal through parody, humor, auto-preferentiality, the daily vicissitudes of teachers and students in the university context. In this context filled with this type of characters, stories are developed and intertwined avoiding favourable or unfavourable,  sarcastic, ironic comments about the academic life itself – obligations and demands, obstacles, achievements, men and women who have chosen, at best, belong to that constant intellectual challenges.
In this paper we will analyze and relate the exchanges. Tales of two universities (1975) and The Art of Fiction (1998) by David Lodge, English writer, this allow us, by means of discourse analysis,   perceive an interesting and fluid dialogue between fiction, literary theory, history, evolution of Anglo-Saxon literature, in a criticism of the academy towards university.