Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim

Kenneth Womack
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Kingsley Amis’s

Lucky Jim

is widely acknowledged as the quintessential campus novel of the twentieth century. As a central figure in the “Angry Young Man” movement during the 1950s, Amis utilizes comedy in the novel as a means for delivering his satiric attacks on the university community. Amis’s narrative is especially critical of those privileged individuals who endeavor to maintain the academic status quo in their favor through the exploitation of junior colleagues, and, ultimately, through the threat of expulsion from the seemingly sacred groves of campus life.

Lucky Jim

was Amis’s first novel, and it received the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction.

Lucky Jim finds its origins in Amis’s 1946 visit to the Senior Common Room at Leicester University, although it also

2893 words

Citation: Womack, Kenneth. "Lucky Jim". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 May 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3806, accessed 29 March 2024.]

3806 Lucky Jim 3 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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