The allusive comedy of Kingsley Amis’ L.S. Caton

Abstract

One of the most fascinating comic characters in British fiction is L.S. Caton, the scheming academic who first appeared in Kingsley Amis’ satire Lucky Jim. Based on Amis’ first publisher, R. A. Caton, the evasive and deceitful L.S. Caton became a running joke in Amis’ early novels; other writers then joined the joke by similarly alluding to him. Since Caton’s appearances subsequent to Lucky Jim allude both to his initial appearance and to his subsequent (allusive) appearances, they are metaallusive—allusions to prior allusions. Until now the existence of the metaallusion as a literary device has passed unnoticed. The allusive use of Caton also highlights two further aspects of allusion that are often overlooked: That they can have more than one object, and that their objects can lie in the future as well as in its past. In addition to addressing these theoretical issues this paper argues that Caton’s appearances enhance readers’ pleasure in the text and thereby facilitate the development of social bonds between them—one of the primary aims of humour. But despite his widespread comic appeal and theoretical interest L.S. Caton has received no sustained academic attention. This paper will correct this oversight by addressing this strangely neglected topic.

Keywords:

• Kingsley Amis
• L. S. Caton
• allusion
• Lucky Jim
• metaallusion
• satire

Acknowledgments

I thank Andrea Lamb of Hull History Center for her invaluable archival work that enabled me to identify an early reference to L.S. Caton. I also thank two anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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James Stacey Taylor

James Stacey Taylor is a Professor of Philosophy at The College of New Jersey. He has written over 100 academic articles and book chapters. He is the author of five books, including Stakes and Kidneys (Ashgate 2005; Routledge 2017), Practical Autonomy and Bioethics (Routledge 2009), Death, Posthumous Harm, and Bioethics (Routledge, 2012), Bloody Bioethics (Routledge, 2022), and Markets with Limits (Routledge, 2022). He is also the editor of Personal Autonomy: New Essays (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and The Metaphysics and Ethics of Death (Oxford University Press, 2013). His current research interests focus on academic misconduct.