Thinks...-. In Memoriam Henry James

Abstract

Según Bakhtin, una de las principales ccracterísticas de la novela es que permite la orquestación de diversos discursos, sin que se produzca el dominio de uno sobre otro. Esta afirmación es perfectamente aplicable a todas las novelas de Lodge, pero de forma especial a Thinks... Lodge no sólo permite que sus personajes se expresen con su propia voz y su propio ideolecto, sino que también introduce diferentes estilos y parodia la obra de conocidos autores. Uno de los escritores imitados es Henry James y, en este sentido, en Thinks... Lodge le rinde tributo a este gran escritor al presentar la acción a través de la consciencia de los personajes, al hacer continuas referencias a sus textos y al compartir con él el concepto humanista del ser autónomo.

“The possibility of employing on the plane of a single work discourses of various types, with all their expressive capacities intact, without reducing them to a common denominator —this is one of the most fundamental characteristic features of prose”, says Bakhtin in Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics and this statement is perfectly applicable to all the novels by David"Lodge, but especially to Thinks... Lodge not only allows his characters to tell their own stories in their own language, but introduces different styles and parodies the work of some well-known authors. One of the writers imitated is Henry James and in a sense in Thinks... Lodge pays homage to him by having the story narrated as perceived by the consciousness of the characters, by making references to his work and by sharing with him the humanist idea of the autonomous self, under attack in scientific discussion and in the humanities.