LUCKY JIM – KINGSLEY AMIS AS THE MASTER OF PERIPHERAL CHARACTERS
Wojciech Klepuszewski
Wydział Humanistyczny Politechnika KoszalińskaAbstract
Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim is a classic novel, popular both with readers and critics.
It has been in print ever since the date of its first publication, 1954, and still attracts
critical attention. Most criticism concerning Lucky Jim focuses on the academic milieu
it delineates and its main representatives, Jim Dixon and Professor Welch. However,
a discerning reader will immediately notice that Amis’s novel is crowded with marginal
characters, whose presence contributes immensely to Amis’s masterpiece. The aim of this
article is to revisit Lucky Jim in order to focus on a number of background characters
and give more prominence to their role in the novel.
Keywords:
Kingsley Amis, fiction, Lucky Jim, charactersReferences
Amis Kingsley. 2000. Lucky Jim. London: Penguin Books.
Amis Kingsley. 2004. Memoirs. London: Vintage.
Bradbury Malcolm. 1988. No, Not Bloomsbury. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bradford Richard. 2001. Lucky Him: The Life of Kingsley Amis. London and Chester
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Stonebridge L. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Castronovo David. 2009. Blokes: The Bad Boys of British Literature. London: Continuum.
Conversations with Kingsley Amis. 2009. Ed. De Pietro Th. Jackson: University Press
of Mississippi.
Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis. 1998. Ed. Bell R.H. New York: G.K. Hall & Co.
Fallis Richar. 1997. „Lucky Jim” and Academic Wishful Thinking. „Studies in the Novel”
Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring): 65-72.
Gardner Philip. 1981. Kingsley Amis. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
Jacobs Eric. 1996. Kingsley Amis: A Biography. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
James Clive. 2009. Profile 4: Kingsley Amis. In: Conversations with Kingsley Amis. 2009.
Ed. De Pietro Th. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi: 70-86.
Laskowski William E. 1998. Kingsley Amis. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Massie Allan. 1990. The Novel Today: A Critical Guide to the British Novel 1970-1989.
McDermott John. 1989. Kingsley Amis: An English Moralist. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Moseley Merritt. 1993. Understanding Kingsley Amis. Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press.
Powell Neil. 2008. Amis & Son: Two Literary Generations. London: MacMillan.
Salwak Dale. 1978. Kingsley Amis :A Reference Guide. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall.
Salwak Dale. 1992. Kingsley Amis: Modern Novelist. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Stovel Bruce. 1998. Traditional Comedy and the Comic Mask in Kingsley Amis’s Lucky
Jim. In: Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis. 1998. Ed. Bell R.H. New York: G.K. Hall
& Co.: 158-169.
Wilmes D.R. 1998. When the Curse Begins to Hurt: Kingsley Amis and Satiric Confrontation.
In: Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis. 1998. Ed. Bell R.H. New York: G.K.
Hall & Co.: 176-186.
Amis Kingsley. 2004. Memoirs. London: Vintage.
Bradbury Malcolm. 1988. No, Not Bloomsbury. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bradford Richard. 2001. Lucky Him: The Life of Kingsley Amis. London and Chester
Springs: Peter Owen.
British Fiction after Modernism: The Novel at Mid-Century. 2007. Eds. MacKay M. and
Stonebridge L. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Castronovo David. 2009. Blokes: The Bad Boys of British Literature. London: Continuum.
Conversations with Kingsley Amis. 2009. Ed. De Pietro Th. Jackson: University Press
of Mississippi.
Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis. 1998. Ed. Bell R.H. New York: G.K. Hall & Co.
Fallis Richar. 1997. „Lucky Jim” and Academic Wishful Thinking. „Studies in the Novel”
Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring): 65-72.
Gardner Philip. 1981. Kingsley Amis. Boston: Twayne Publishers.
Jacobs Eric. 1996. Kingsley Amis: A Biography. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
James Clive. 2009. Profile 4: Kingsley Amis. In: Conversations with Kingsley Amis. 2009.
Ed. De Pietro Th. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi: 70-86.
Laskowski William E. 1998. Kingsley Amis. New York: Twayne Publishers.
Massie Allan. 1990. The Novel Today: A Critical Guide to the British Novel 1970-1989.
McDermott John. 1989. Kingsley Amis: An English Moralist. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Moseley Merritt. 1993. Understanding Kingsley Amis. Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press.
Powell Neil. 2008. Amis & Son: Two Literary Generations. London: MacMillan.
Salwak Dale. 1978. Kingsley Amis :A Reference Guide. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall.
Salwak Dale. 1992. Kingsley Amis: Modern Novelist. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Stovel Bruce. 1998. Traditional Comedy and the Comic Mask in Kingsley Amis’s Lucky
Jim. In: Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis. 1998. Ed. Bell R.H. New York: G.K. Hall
& Co.: 158-169.
Wilmes D.R. 1998. When the Curse Begins to Hurt: Kingsley Amis and Satiric Confrontation.
In: Critical Essays on Kingsley Amis. 1998. Ed. Bell R.H. New York: G.K.
Hall & Co.: 176-186.
Klepuszewski, W. (2016). LUCKY JIM – KINGSLEY AMIS AS THE MASTER OF PERIPHERAL CHARACTERS. Acta Neophilologica, 2(XVIII), 149–159. Retrieved from https://czasopisma.uwm.edu.pl/index.php/an/article/view/701
Wojciech Klepuszewski
Wydział Humanistyczny Politechnika Koszalińska
Wydział Humanistyczny Politechnika Koszalińska
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