TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

FROM D. LODGE ‘S NICE WORK ( 1982)

This is an extract wrote  by D. Lodge: a postmodern rendering of the Victorian novel.

The presence of a third person omniscient intrusive narrator better conveys the parody of the Victorian novel, using Victorian novel's device themselves. As a matter of fact the Lodge's objective is to study the Victorian novel and its timeline  through a Postmodern view.

The extract is a dialogue between reader and intrusive narrator ( let's us leave).

Starting from the first line we meet Vic Wilcox, who is going to meet a " very different character". So this first part of the text creates expectations in the reader. As a consequence he/ she aspects to read not about a common individual, but on the contrary about an unusual, not ordinary, unconventional character.

The narrator characterizes this unconventional woman through:

Her name "Robin Penrose", a male name attributed to a female;

Her believes, convictions and ideals "doesn't believe in the concept of character": she think the character is a " bourgeois myth" to reinforce the ideology of capitalism. As a concerns this point Lodge makes an argumentation to affirm the truth of Woman's ideals. The argumentation is " the rise of the novel.. coincides with rise of capitalism"; " the triumph of the novel coincides with the triumph of the capitalism", " the deconstruction of the novel coincides with the terminal crisis of the capitalism". After that there is the clarification of the analogies between capitalism and novel : "both are expressions of secularised Protestant ethic, both dependent on the idea of an autonomous individual self", and the novelist is a capitalist of the imagination.  

The characterization goes on with the repetition of typical expression of her language " that is to say";

Her body language " At this point Robyn, with elbows tucked into her sides would spread her hands outwards from the wrist";

Her job " temporary Lecturer in English Literature at the  University" : it means that she hadn't a permanent job that is a postmodern condition,

Her unusual idea about the development of novel " the rise of the novel ...coincided with the rise of capitalism" ;

Her culture : she knows Jacques Derrida;

Her philosophy " semiotic materialism". Moreover it is said that " you are what you eat", " you are what you speak ", " you are what speaks you ".

The second part of the extract focuses its attention on the idea of identity. According to Robyn idea the character has a lot of self, as a matter of fact she affirms " there is only  a subject position in an infinite web discourses". Following this logical argumentation she reflects also on the role of author, she doesn't believe in the principle of authority because of  " there is no a thing as an author , one who originates  a  work of fiction ab nhilo"

So analysing the extract the intelligent reader has to notice that this is a text made up thanks to argumentation that gives the reader the possibility to understand the woman's position, and to understand her message about the study on the Victorian novel from the postmodern point of view.