Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis As A campus Novel

“Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis” As A campus Novel

A campus novel is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university. In English campus novel‖ is a term used to designate a work of fiction whose action takes place mainly in a college or university, and which is mainly concerned with the lives of university professors and junior teachers and somewhat with their students, both undergraduate and postgraduate. In the campus novel students are usually objects perceived by the academic staff, rather than subjects from whose point of view the story is told. This emphasis on the teachers rather than on their students is a distinctive feature of the campus novel, which emerged in the second half of the twentieth century. An alternative name for the campus novel is ― academic novel,‖ and some critics who write on the subject prefer it, but ―campus novel‖ is more expressive of the unity of place which characterises the genre.

In the novel, Jim is a probationary junior lecturer in medieval history — a subject that he detests, in the cloistered academic world. Dixon secures a temporary adjunct position at an unnamed provincial redbrick university. Like the other angry young working class men who struggle to find acceptance and self‑sufficiency in the groves of academe. Dixon hungers for job security. Professor Welch serves as Dixon’s  fortune controller in this novel. For Dixon, Welch represents everything that he finds troubling about academic life. Dixon finds himself equally confused by the disparity between Welch’s academic standing and his vague qualifications. Although Welch possesses the power to decide Dixon’s ultimate fate at the university. For this reason, he accedes to all of the professor’s demands for his service. In addition to agreeing to attend Welch’s ―Arty Weekend‖ of madrigal songs and chamber music—activities which the working‑class Dixon finds utterly detestable—Dixon conducts his senior colleague’s research activities and provides Welch with notes for a lecture that the professor intends to deliver. Despite all of his efforts ,he fails to gain Welch’s favor. For which, Welch frequently refers to him as ― Faulkner,‖ the name of a previous temporary assistant lecturer.

On the other hand, Bertrand and Dixon’s differences in social class and personal ethics. A pompous, self‑important artist, Bertrand adopts a variety of measures expressly intended to establish distance between himself and the inferior beings that he sees around him. As Bertrand slowly discovers that Dixon’s potential intimacy with Christine Callaghan. He begins threatening to use his relationship with his father to get Dixon dismissed from job , Bertrand cutions Dixon about the powerful range of his influence.Christine, the niece of the wealthy London art collector, Julius Gore‑Urquhart, is an object over which to establish the rivalry between Dixon and Bertrand. To Dixon, Christine initially appears to serve as a mere ornament for Bertrand’s social excursions. She seems to confirm this belief after openly referring to Gore‑Urquhart as ―Uncle‖ during their first meeting the ―Arty Weekend‖. Christine provides Dixon with a true colleague in every sense of the word, a trusted confidante who shares in his mischievous attacks on the academy. As well as she agrees to depart with him from the Summer Ball that she originally attended as Bertrand’s date, and later, after she agrees to meet with him secretly at the local pub. Christine along with Gore‑Urquhart, affords Dixon with vital means for leaving the university community. Gore‑Urquhart affords Dixon with the opportunity of well-paid job in London. On the other hand,Welch Counsels that an effective public lecture on behalf of the department might save his job at the university. However, Dixon delivers a protracted and forceful parody of the academy, scholarship, and his senior colleagues. During his ―Merrie England‖ speech, Dixon replaces his inventory of faces with drunken imitations of the voices of Welch, the university Principal, and, finally, a Nazi stormtrooper. In this way, he argues his final, blistering attack upon the indefensible foundations of the academic world of his experience.

The job offered by Gore‑Urquhart surprises Dixon. He believed that Bertrand would receive the coveted position in Gore‑Urquhart’s office. After Dixon recognizes the role of chance and the possibility of good fortune in his future—forces at work in his life, ironically, only hours after his dismissal from the university—he fashions a new philosophy for governing his newly discovered personal ethos. When Christine misses her train to London, allowing Dixon to meet her at the station and tell her about his upcoming job in the city, he recognizes the degree to which his previous outlook lacked the capacity to express feelings of jubilation. Dixon establishes his ultimate connection with the human community beyond academe when he and Christine encounter Professor Welch and Bertrand as they leave the train station.

From the above discussion it can be said that the novel Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis is,undoubtly, a campus novels. The story concerns with the university as Jim Dixon is a junior lecturer of medieval history at a provincial university and struggles to keep his job. The paradox is that Jim, in fact, hates his job. There is nothing of interest in the subject for Jim. He is keener on drinking beer and picking up pretty girls at the university. The object of Jim’s hatred and ridicule is the head of the department, Professor Welch. As this is the person who will decide whether or not Jim will be unemployed the next year. Jim tries to make a good impression on him, although he hates the Professor. He is unwillingly pushed into pretentious behaviour in relationships with the Welches and his neurotic colleague Margaret. Jim is involved in many embarrassing events during the year and is sacked because of his scandalous public lecture. As the title suggests, Jim is lucky and happy in the end, when he gets a well-paid job in London and the girl he is in love with Christine.