An analysis of David Lodge’s "Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses" and "Small World: An Academic Romance" in the light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s "Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None"

Download
index.pdf
2009
Çelik, Sevinç
Show full item record
421
views
285
downloads
The aim of this thesis is to analyse David Lodge’s campus novels Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses (1975) and Small World: An Academic Romance (1984) to see how nihilism is dealt with in the modern academic world by the main characters in the novels. The characters will be examined in the light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (1883-85). As the prophet Zarathustra in Thus Spoke Zarathustra is the mouthpiece of Nietzsche himself, this thesis aims at studying Lodge’s novels in the light of Nietzsche’s ideas. In this respect, this thesis provides a closer look into Zarathustrian (Nietzschean) concepts of “will to power”, “eternal recurrence” and “overman”, and it reveals to what extent Lodge’s main characters can achieve a full “will to power”, attain a joyful acceptance of “eternal recurrence”, and overcome themselves on the way to becoming “overman”. With the elaboration of these three concepts, this thesis aims to uncover the ways in which Lodge’s main characters recover from the negative effects of futility and depression caused by nihilism in the modern world.
English., English literature.
http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12610968/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/19007
Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

Theatricality and the chronotope in "The Magus" by J. Fowles and "England, England" by J. Barnes
Filimonova, Alexandra; Sönmez, Margaret Jeanne M.; Department of English Language Teaching (2009)
The thesis reveals the main principles of the theatrical chronotope and examines the ways in which it is embodied in the novels of two postmodern authors – The Magus by John Fowles and England, England by Julian Barnes. These are analyzed as presenting two different variants of texts that employ the theatrical chronotope to exploit its different possible semantic implications. The thesis argues that in The Magus theatricality is employed to convey the author’s philosophical and aesthetical thoughts. The mai...
The ostracising of the unlike in H.G.Wells’s "The Time Machine", "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and "The Invisible Man" based on a pessimistic interpretation of T.H.Huxley’s "evolution and ethics"
İnci, Orkun; Alpakın Martınez Caro, Dürrin; Department of English Language Teaching (2009)
This thesis analyses the ostracising of the unlike as social criticism in H.G.Wells’s The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Invisible Man against a background of T.H.Huxley’s cosmic pessimism in his work Evolution and Ethics. The thesis claims that Wells puts mankind’s future on an ever darkening line of evolution, or in other words devolution. Wells, although he is an admirer of Huxley, shows a more sceptical and cynical attitude in the assessment of the capabilities and nature of mankind. The...
An analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert L. Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in relation to Lacanian criticism
Baranoğlu (Çevik), Selen; Alpakın Martınez Caro, Dürrin; Department of English Literature (2008)
This thesis carries out an analysis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by focusing on the Lacanian concepts of desire, alienation and sexuality. It achieves this by providing brief background information about Lacanian psychoanalytic literary criticism and the relations of this criticism with the concepts of desire, alienation and sexuality. Through the analysis of the main characters in the mentioned novels, this study asserts that these concepts are structu...
A comparative analysis of sense of belonging as a part of identity of the colonizer and the colonized in the grass is singing and my place
Göktan, Cansu; Doyran, Feyza; Department of English Language Teaching (2010)
This thesis investigates how two loosely autobiographical works unveil the effects of colonization on their major characters in terms of their identities and senses of belonging. The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing, a second-generation member of the colonizer, and My Place by Sally Morgan, a third-generation hybrid Australian Aborigine, are selected because both novels essentially deal with colonial issues by depicting their major characters in a process of maturation within a colonial and post-colonial f...
An analysis of gender issues in the lost girl and the plumed serpent by D.H. Lawrence
Akgün, Ela; Çileli, Fatma Meral; Department of English Literature (2005)
This thesis analyzes the ways how David Herbert Lawrence advocates sexual politics in his novels The Lost Girl and The Plumed Serpent. The thesis argues that although D.H. Lawrence portrays modern women̕s search for identity in The Lost Girl and The Plumed Serpent, his attitude is that of a very conventional man who advertises his male fantasies through female characters; and the gender role that he finally assigns to women is unquestioning submissiveness to male authority. The power relations between sexes...
Citation Formats
S. Çelik, “An analysis of David Lodge’s “Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses” and “Small World: An Academic Romance” in the light of Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None”,” M.A. - Master of Arts, Middle East Technical University, 2009.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr