Ester Nelly Abuter Ananías - Fachbereich Philosophie und ...

Erhard Reckwitz ( Universität Essen, Deutschland )
British Academics Visiting the US :
Th e Novels of David Lodge and Malcolm Bradbury
In keeping with George Bernard Shaw’s paradoxical dictum that Britain and the
United States are two countries separated by the same language it is small wonder
that British academics visiting the US should also experience a number of unsett ling
intercultural experiences : In spite of their superfi cial similarities the systems
of tertiary education in both countries are vastly diff erent, which is due to their
embeddedness in their respective culture. In the novels under discussion any number
of situations and confl icts are engineered where this becomes particularly evident,
thereby allowing them to exploit the comic potential arising from intercultural
misunderstandings. At the same time the comical mode tends to liberate the novelists
from the mimetic constraints of realistic writing, which enables them to give free rein
to their satirical imagination by way of creating exaggerated types of behaviour on
both sides und juxtaposing them in the most unlikely fashion.
Email dekanat@geisteswissenschaft en.uni-due.de
Section Travels between Europe and North America ( 15th through 21st centuries )
Panel 18
Date July 28
Time 15 :00
Location l 113