摘 要

《幸运的吉姆》是英国当代著名作家金斯利·艾米斯的长篇小说，描写了吉姆·狄克逊这个“反英雄”形象，以及试用期的大学历史教师的生活窘境，勾勒出了一幅二战后英国知识分子，特别是学院环境中的来自于社会底层的老师的生活状态图。本文将研究小说中人物的心理活动、言语动作和情节，以及英国精英文化的起源和定义，以此来探讨《幸运的吉姆》中所反映的对精英文化的挑战。希望本文对小说中该主题的分析，能为对作家及其作品的新兴研究做出贡献。

本文包含六个部分。第一部分，导论介绍小说作者；第二部分,介绍研究状况；第三部分，详尽地介绍英国精英文化，具体包括基本定义、显著特征等；第四部分，进行具体的人物心理、言语动作和情节的细节分析，主要分析他们的滑稽性、反叛性；第五部分,分析《幸运的吉姆》带来的社会影响；最后，本文重述对精英文化的挑战这一结论。

关键字：精英文化；荒诞反叛；对比分析；批判挑战

Abstract

Lucky Jim, written by the famous contemporary English writer Kingsley Amis, depicts Jim Dixon, an anti-heroic character, and probationary college history teacher’s life quandaries, and draws a picture of British intellectuals’ life after World War Two, who come from the lower social class. This paper focuses the discussion on characters’ psychological situation, words and actions and plot in order to analyze the theme of challenging English highbrow culture, hoping to make some contributions to new exploration of the author and the novel.

This paper consists of six parts, namely, the introduction, the literature review, three Chapters as the body paragraphs and the conclusion. The introduction introduces the author and the novel. Chapter two focuses on prevails researches on this novel. In Chapter three, the definition, striking characteristics of highbrow culture are given in details. Chapter four initiates concrete analysis on psychology, words and actions, and plot, mainly on their comicality and rebellion. Chapter five analyzes the social significance of Lucky Jim. Finally, the paper restates the conclusion of challenging highbrow culture.

Key Words: Highbrow culture; anti-heroic character; contrast analysis; criticism and challenge

Contents

1 Introduction - 1 -

2 Literature Review - 2 -

3 Highbrow Culture - 3 -

3.1 Origin of Highbrow Culture - 3 -

3.2 Characteristics of Highbrow Culture - 3 -

4 Analysis of Psychology, Words, Actions and Plot - 5 -

4.1 Psychology - 5 -

4.2 Words - 5 -

4.3 Actions - 6 -

4.4 Plot - 7 -

5 Social Significance of Lucky Jim - 8 -

6 Conclusion - 9 -

References - 10 -

Acknowledgements - 12 -

A Challenge to Highbrow Culture: Preposterousness and Rebellion in Lucky Jim

1 Introduction

Born in 1922 in Clapham, London, Kingsley Amis studied at the City of London School on a scholarship. One year later he was admitted into St. John’s College, Oxford in 1941, where he studied English. It was there that he met with Philip Larkin, to whom Lucky Jim is dedicated, and who helps inspire the main characters and who contributes significantly to the structure of the novel (Janice, 1998). In July 1942, Amis began his national service. After servicing in the Royal Corps of Signals in the World War Two, he returned to Oxford in 1945 to finish his degree. Though Amis studied well in English, he had then decided to focus on writing.

Amis is wildly known as a comic novelist in mid to late 20^th-century Britain, but his literary works consist of various genres, such as poetry, essays, short stories, criticism etc. Lucky Jim, Amis’ first novel, is his most famous masterpiece, satirizing highbrow academic set. The novel is considered as part of the Angry Young Men movement, which reacts against the foolishness of conventional British life. His other works likewise depict situations from contemporary British life, often obtained from his own experiences, like That Uncertain Feeling, Take a Girl Like You. He also creates some works related to science, myth and history, for example, The Anti-Death League, The Green Man and The Alteration