David Lodge was born 1935 in South London as the child of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. He was raised in the middle class and went to Catholic schools. With the age of 22 he became postgraduate student for English literature at the University college of London. In 1960 he became a lecturer at the Birmingham University and published his first novel The Picturegoers. Being a lecturer he discovered the field of literary criticism and wrote his first critical book Language of Fiction. After touring the USA and studying at the Brown University and at Berkeley he was so inspired by travelling and the academic world that he wrote Changing Places. This academic novel about travelling teachers of literature was the first part of a trilogy together with Small World and Nice Work. All three of them were pioneering for modern fiction of the 20th century. For Changing Places David Lodge won the Hawthornden Prize and the Yorkshire Post Fiction Prize. Small World, as well as Nice Work, were shortlisted for the Booker Prize and Nice Work was Sunday Express Book of the year and actually adapted for Television. All three of them showed the academic world in a new light. After World War II more people from middle class went to Universities and the competition between the Universities as well as the scholars became harder. Travelling around the world from conference to conference was on the day’s schedule of every scholar. David Lodge used this milieu and mixed it with humour and sarcasm and so innovated fiction writing of today.
This paper is about David Lodge’s Small World and its linking to the King Arthur myth especially to the knight Perceval and the Holy Grail. The connection between the novel and the legend results from David Lodge’s knowledge of both, the academic world and the medieval literature. He mixed them so to create a modern version of Perceval’s quest for the Holy Grail.
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION
2. SMALL WORLD – A SHORT SUMMARY
3. THE GRAIL LEGEND ACCORDING TO CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES AND WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH
3.1 CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES
3.2 WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH
4. INTERPRETATION OF LODGE’S SMALL WORLD ACCORDING TO WOLFRAM’S PARZIVAL
4.1 THE HOLY GRAIL THEME
4.2 THE PARZIVAL AND WASTE LAND THEME
5. CONCLUSION
Objectives & Core Topics
This paper examines David Lodge’s novel Small World and its intertextual connection to the Arthurian legend, specifically focusing on the knight Perceval and the quest for the Holy Grail. The primary research goal is to demonstrate how Lodge leverages his deep knowledge of medieval literature and the modern academic world to craft a contemporary adaptation of the Grail quest.
- The role of the Grail as a symbol for individual desire and ambition.
- Character parallels between Small World and Parzival (e.g., Persse McGarrigle, Arthur Kingfisher, Cundrie).
- The "Waste Land" motif as a representation of modern literary criticism.
- Analysis of the quest structure in a 20th-century campus novel setting.
Excerpt from the Book
4.1 The Holy Grail theme
Persse lives in his own world and is at first confused about the scholars talking not only about their research, but also about having sex with students and other affairs and about their bad marriages. In this atmosphere he falls in love with a women called Angelica, who vanishes before he could really reach and impress her. So he travels around the world to find her. This is his quest, which is an equivalent to Parzival’s quest for the Holy Grail. This magical mystic thing is not explicitly described neither by Chrétien, nor by Wolfram. Jessie Weston explains the Holy Grail as a “Food-providing talisman” that serves everybody who is worthy. Together with the bleeding lance the Grail forms a unit that is a fertility symbol consisting of a male part, the lance, and a female part, the Grail. Referring to Small World this can be interpreted that the scholars hungering for more prestige, power and less work want the UNSECO-chair. But what happens to Persse’s grail? Is he hungering for love so much that his grail becomes Angelica? All in all, the most obvious interpretation of the Holy Grail in Small World is that it is a symbol for the things people wish most in their live. For Parzival the Gral is to be king of the rich land of the Fisher King, to become a honest knight and to live in happiness and harmony with his beloved wife. From the first line of Wolfram or Chrétien, Parzival is described as an innocent person on the quest for chivalry, knighthood, courtly love and for his destiny revealed by his father’s legacy. This defines his Holy Grail, when at the end of the story he becomes the person he wants to be.
Summary of Chapters
1. INTRODUCTION: Provides a biographical overview of David Lodge and introduces the core thesis regarding the linkage between Small World and the King Arthur myth.
2. SMALL WORLD – A SHORT SUMMARY: Outlines the plot of the novel, focusing on the protagonist Persse McGarrigle and his world-spanning quest for love amidst a network of academic conferences.
3. THE GRAIL LEGEND ACCORDING TO CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES AND WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH: Details the medieval origins of the Grail legend, contrasting the foundational version by Chrétien de Troyes with the expanded adaptation by Wolfram von Eschenbach.
3.1 CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES: Discusses the early structure of the Perceval story, the enigmatic nature of the Grail, and the unfinished state of the original text.
3.2 WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH: Analyzes how Wolfram extends the narrative, naming key figures and providing a definitive conclusion to the quest.
4. INTERPRETATION OF LODGE’S SMALL WORLD ACCORDING TO WOLFRAM’S PARZIVAL: Maps the structural and thematic elements of the medieval legend onto the characters and environment of Lodge’s novel.
4.1 THE HOLY GRAIL THEME: Explores how various characters define their personal "Grail," with a focus on the UNESCO chair and Persse's quest for Angelica.
4.2 THE PARZIVAL AND WASTE LAND THEME: Examines the "Fisher King" motif in the context of the academic world and Arthur Kingfisher's ultimate healing through the "Parzival question."
5. CONCLUSION: Synthesizes the analysis, reaffirming that Small World is a successful modern adaptation of medieval myth, highlighting that fundamental human desires remain constant across time.
Keywords
David Lodge, Small World, Parzival, Perceval, Holy Grail, Arthurian Legend, Literary Criticism, Campus Novel, Fisher King, Intertextuality, Persse McGarrigle, Arthur Kingfisher, Medieval Literature, Quest, Waste Land
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research paper?
The paper explores the structural and thematic connections between David Lodge’s academic novel Small World and the medieval Grail legends of Chrétien de Troyes and Wolfram von Eschenbach.
Which literary works are being compared?
The primary focus is on David Lodge’s Small World and its comparison to the medieval poems Perceval ou le conte du graal (Chrétien) and Parzival (Wolfram).
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to demonstrate how Lodge utilizes medieval mythology as a framework to comment on the power struggles and human desires within the modern academic landscape.
What methodology is applied in this analysis?
The author uses a comparative literary approach, identifying parallel character constellations, symbolic motifs (such as the Fisher King), and narrative structures between the medieval sources and the contemporary novel.
What themes are covered in the main body of the paper?
The analysis covers the definition of the Holy Grail as a metaphor for personal ambition, the "Waste Land" crisis in literary academia, and the mirroring of medieval characters in modern university teachers.
Which keywords best describe this study?
Key terms include David Lodge, Small World, Parzival, Holy Grail, Intertextuality, and Campus Novel.
How does the author interpret the Holy Grail in a modern setting?
The author suggests that in Small World, the Grail is a subjective symbol representing the deepest desires of the individual—ranging from professional prestige, like the UNESCO chair, to the search for true love.
Who is the modern equivalent of the Fisher King in the novel?
Arthur Kingfisher serves as the modern equivalent, suffering from an inability to act (impotence) until he is healed by the intervention of the protagonist, Persse McGarrigle, who asks the correct, transformative question.
Does the protagonist find his "Grail" by the end of the story?
While the UNESCO chair is claimed by Arthur Kingfisher, Persse's quest for the "Grail of Love" remains open-ended, reflecting the unfinished and "never-ending" nature of his journey.
- Quote paper
- Doreen Bärwolf (Author), 2008, Elements of the Holy Grail Quest in David Lodge’s “Small World”, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/156443
