How sharp can Sharpe be? Wit and crudity in the novels of Tom Sharpe

• Authors: Zbigniew Głowala
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The campus novel, invariably a satire on the university community, typically touches on the subjects of sex, money, power, adultery, or professional rivalry. Tom Sharpe's novels cover similar topics. They are, however, crammed with vulgarity, chauvinism and black humour. The purpose of the article is to analyse Tom Sharpe’s satirical style considering the author's apparent refusal to accept the boundaries of taste and decency. The article will focus on three novels, Porterhouse Blue, Wilt and The Wilt Alternative, which ridicule academics but also contemporary society at large. Sharpe introduces a whole parade of unusual characters, arranges for them a series of preposterous situations and spices his plots with grotesque and sometimes repellent episodes.

Keywords

EN

Sharpe; Wilt; grotesque; campus novel; black humour

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Gdański
• Journal: Beyond Philology: An International Journal of Linguistics, Literary Studies and English Language Teaching
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 107-117

Contributors

author

Zbigniew Głowala

• Studia Doktoranckie w Zakresie Neofilologii, Instytut Anglistyki, Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej, Lublin

References

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• McCall, Raymond G. (1984). “The comic novels of Tom Sharpe”. Critique 25/2: 57-65.
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• Sharpe, Tom (2002). Porterhouse Blue. London: Arrow Books.
• Sharpe, Tom (1981). The Wilt Alternative. London: Pan Books.
• Sharpe, Tom (1978). Wilt. London: Pan Books.

Identifiers

ISSN

1732-1220