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Uarova O.V. [Representation features of social conflict in the novel «Nice Work» by D. Lodge] World of Science. Series: Sociology, Philology, Cultural Studies, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 4. Available at: https://sfk-mn.ru/PDF/11FLSK422.pdf (in Russian).

Representation features of social conflict in the novel «Nice Work» by D. Lodge

Uarova Olga Vasilievna
Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yakutsk, Russia
E-mail: uarovaolya@mail.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5407-736X
RSCI: https://www.elibrary.ru/author_profile.asp?id=762648

Abstract. The article examines the features of the social conflict in British society represented in a novel by D. Lodge «Nice Work» (1988). We applied to the Great British class survey, developed by European researchers together with the BBC Laboratory in 2011. We also used a descriptive-analytical method to provide observation of the functioning of the linguistic phenomena relevant to the social class conflict in the text. The main conflict of British society in the second half of the 20th century unfolds within the middle class due to the successful economic development of the country in the previous centuries. However, economic growth has not led to the leveling of differences in political views and cultural values among the new middle class. The main means of describing the social conflict in the novel are the genre, compositional, lexical, and speech characteristics of the characters. The author of the novel chose parallelism as a means of describing the acute phase of the conflict between the two main representatives of the middle class in the novel, and a mirror composition for the phase of its resolution. When analyzing the background of the characters in the novel, their origin, education, as well as economic, cultural, social, and linguistic factors are taken into account. The changes in the British social class system in this period have revealed a decrease in the role of the upper class, an increase in the representation of the middle class and its heterogeneity, and the inclusion of immigrants from postcolonial countries in the working class. The author of the novel not only describes the social conflict within the middle class of British society but also offers its solution for establishing interaction between its representatives. He also emphasizes his vision of the social responsibility of the middle class in spreading humanitarian values in society, including the support of the middle class for those who find themselves in less favorable conditions.

Keywords: novel; British society; social conflict; middle class; parallelism; mirror composition

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