Ladies of the Ivory Tower : Academic Feminism and Feminist Academics in Carol Shields's Swann, David Lodge's Nice Work, and A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance

Abstract

This thesis explores the representation and negotiation of academic feminism and feminist academics in three best-selling campus novels: Carol Shields’ Swann (1987), David Lodge’s Nice Work (1988), and A.S Byatt’s Possession: A Romance (1990). It is based on the assumption that academic fiction may function as a significant contribution to academic and social debate, allowing for other modes of staging and exploring feminist issues than those offered by academic non-fiction. The close-readings of these three novels are supplemented by discussions concerning interpretive possibilities and reception in relation to the authors’ public profiles, as these possibilities arguably entail a particular emphasis on representational responsibility in terms of reception. The latter is here assumed to depend, in part, on the cognitive interaction of the author’s public profile and the reader’s interpretive horizon.