This essay presents an overall view of David Lodge's fiction from
Ginger, You're Barmy (1962) to Small World (1984), in an attempt to
illustrate the main tendencies in contemporary English fiction since the
end of the fifties. Humour, social realism, the break of traditional
forms and genres, the heritage of Modernism, and experimentalism are
among the topics discussed in this paper; special attention is also paid
to Lodge's reflections on the contemporary novel in his critical
writings, when this seems relevant to understand his fiction.
