Unit хiii

I. Read the text and do the assignments following it.

Kingsley Amis (1922–)

Kingsley Amis was educated at Oxford and after graduation taught English at the University of Swansea. "Lucky Jim" was published in 1954 and brought its author immediate success. By January 1957 it had sustained eighteen editions and was acclaimed by the critics as one of the most hugely successful first novels in the English language. It was followed by "That Uncertain Feeling" (1955), "I Like It Here" (1956), "Take a Girl Like You" (1960), "One Fat Englishman" (1963), "Antideath League" (1966).

Although Amis himself objected to being classified as an Angry Young Man, he is generally considered one of the leading representatives of the young English writers of the nineteen-fifties, colloquially called the Angries.

These writers had much in common as far as the attitudes and characteristic features of their heroes were concerned. Their books expressed very clearly the disgust of the young generation with an outworn and morally bankrupt social order, and their protest against the inhumanity of the bourgeois world of our time. These young authors' strength also lay in "creating a convincing English background" of the fifties.

His latest book is a departure from the main line of his previous novels. As he put it himself, he tried to make "Antideath League" as timeless as possible. He is no longer a rebel, neither are the other Angry Young Men so young, and so angry as they used to be ten years ago.

"Lucky Jim," characteristic of the early Amis, is essentially an English University novel. Concern with educational problems in general, and the crisis of outlook and vocational prospects of the Arts Departments in "redbrick" universities, in particular, is typical of this group of writers.

II. Translate and learn the following word combinations from the text. Use them in the sentences of your own:

to bring immediate success, to sustain eighteen editions, to object to being classified as, to have much in common, a disgust with an outworn and morally bankrupt social order, a protest against inhumanity, a departure from the main line, concern with educational problems.

III. Speak on the creation of Kingsley Amis as a representative of the Angry Young Men.

IV. Read the article and be ready to characterize the main hero of K. Amis's novel "Lucky Jim."

Kingsley Amis depicts provincial university life in a mood of amused disgust. He surveys the problems of a junior lecturer in humanities through the eyes of a vivacious young man who has beliefs and no enthusiasms, – nothing but contempt for his subject, his colleagues and his elders. The bareness of Dixon's outlook reduces his revolt against the shams and pedantry of academic life to despising his own work, making faces when nobody sees him, to practical jokes and drinking. Teaching others what it has bored him to learn is not a particularly inspiring prospect, and it has a thoroughly demoralizing effect.

The writer's manner of narration and inner speech affords him a possibility of introducing us to Dixon's worries about his prospects and his intense fear of being "sacked." When asked about why he had chosen the Middle Ages as his subject, Dixon readily confesses to have taken the line of least resistance.

The main personage is convincing. His mentality cannot make him very attractive to the reader; his realness, however, cannot be questioned. The sadness of the story lies in its being a story of a split personality fighting to retain what he hates to possess. As in spite of his aversion for the university Dixon is very eager to be kept on the staff, his last wistful question: "Haven't you noticed how we all specialize in what we hate most?" is almost tragical.

It might be of interest to point out the glaring difference in the treatment of university problems by Amis and Snow. C.P. Snow portrays the elder generation of scientists who during the war shoulder the responsibility of bringing into the world nuclear physics and are fully aware of all the horrors and benefits it may bring to mankind. These were people in love with science, people for whom science was the one permanent source of happiness.

Amis deals with the problems of the younger generation in postwar England. His hero's approach is cynical, irresponsible, without a trace of self-regard. The novelist does openly project himself into his book and does not help us with any generalizations.

V. Translate the following extract into Russian using a dictionary.

Hurrying through the side streets deserted at this hour before works and offices closed, Dixon thought of Welch.¹ Would Welch have asked him to set up a special subject if he wasn't going to keep him as a lecturer? Substitute any human name for Welch's and the answer must be no. But retain the original reading and no certainty was possible. As recently as last week, a month after the special subject had been mentioned, he'd heard Welch talking to the professor of education² about "the sort of new man" he was after. Dixon had felt very ill for five minutes; then Welch had come up to him and begun discussing, in tones of complete honesty, what he wanted Dixon to do with the pass people³ next. At the memory, Dixon rolled his eyes together like marbles and sucked in his cheeks to give a consumptive or wasted appearance to his face, moaning loudly as he crossed the sunlit street to his front door.

(From "Lucky Jim " by K. Amis)

Notes:

1. Welch – Dixon's professor

2. professor of education – professor of pedagogics

3. pass people – students reading for a degree

VI. Render text in English using the following key words and combinations:

a humorist, to possess a gift of, a new edition, defiant boldness of conception, novelty of form, artistic device, huge success.

Критика увидела в Эмисе прежде всего юмориста и сразу заговорила о нем как о писателе, обладающем огромным дарованием в создании смешного. «Счастливчик Джим» был объявлен «самым смешным английским романом после войны». Об этом кричала реклама, писали критики. Об этом же сообщалось на суперобложках новых изданий его книги, выходивших в течение года одно за другим. Вместе с тем «Счастливчик Джим» не отличался ни вызывающей смелостью идейного замысла, ни большой новизной формы. Связь многих художественных приемов Эмиса с приемами английских юмористов XVIII и XIX веков очевидна. Причины того почти неслыханного успеха, который имел «Счастливчик Джим», надо искать не только в его комедийности.