Dissolved Frontiers: Encountering the Other and the deconstruction of a binary world model in David Lodge’s Nice Work

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Kassel (Institut fur anglistische Literaturwissenschaft), course: Gender at Work, language: English, abstract: In David Lodge’s Nice Work , space constitutes the important aspect of structuring the world of Rummidge and its characters. The novel is set up in a twofold structure of space: Industry, represented by Vic Wilcox (MD of Pringle’s engineering), and Academia represented by Dr. Robyn Penrose (English Lecturer at the University of Rummidge). This division does not only imply a geographical but also a social dimension, expressed by an apparent textual structure promoting at first glance a static division between the superiority of male/industry/economic capital and an inferior counterpart of female/university/ cultural capital. This paper analyses the structure of binary oppositions in Nice Work and reveals the potential of discovering another sphere of living based on Lotman’s theory of space. In its interpretation, it further calls structuralism into question and concludes with a deconstructive interpretation of the male/female dichotomy .