Living in a Mobile Age: On Endless Academic Conferences and Travels in Small World by David Lodge

Abstract

The novel Small World is brimming with mobilities which can be largely embodied in endless academic travels. These involve the mobility of the body and the mobility of information/knowledge. For one thing, these mobilities help to promote information exchange as well as human relations. For another, mobilities imply the postmodern feature of uncertainty (like the grail-pursuing knights). This paper, basing itself on the perspective of sociology, attempts to sort out the close connection between various mobilities in the novel and how it affects the academic members’ feelings so as to highlight the significance of mobilities in this ever mobile postmodern existence.