‘Scholars These Days Are Like the Errant Knights of Old’: Arthurian Allusions in David Lodge’s "Small World"

Abstract

David Lodge’s novel Small World (1984) builds on a wide range of literary allusions, most notably on allusions to medieval and modern versions of the Grail quest and Arthurian literature. Using the methodology of historically informed literary criticism, the present paper showcases Lodge’s employment of key medieval topoi, especially of the Grail quest, in portraying the academic community of Small World.