David Lodge was one of England’s pre-eminent novelist-critics. His work in either sphere – fiction and literary criticism – would be sufficient to earn him recognition and esteem. His combination of the two over a long, prolific and impressive career both demonstrated an admirable versatility and, somewhat more subtly, permitted the cross-fertilisation of fiction by literary theory and criticism. With his long-time friend and sometime collaborator, Malcolm Bradbury, Lodge helped to create the category of novelist-don (it is much more uncommon in Britain than in the US for creative writers to be university professors as well) and the contemporary genre of campus fiction. It is for his academic novels – perhaps most notably

Changing Places

,

Small World

and

Nice Work

, the so-called…

2755 words

Citation: Moseley, Merritt. "David Lodge". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 July 2001; last revised 16 January 2025. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2773, accessed 28 March 2025.]

2773 David Lodge 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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