Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
As we read Lucky Jim, we really have to wonder what made Jim Dixon want to be a history professor in the first place. He hates to read; he avoids his students. When we first meet Jim, he's trying to get an article published in a journal. His boss has made it clear that this would make it more likely that he could keep his job, which seems to be in some jeopardy. Jim's article is titled "The Economic Influence of the Developments in Shipbuilding Techniques, 1450-1485." What a page-turner, huh?
With this article, Amis has made up the most obscure and useless subject he could think of, to satirize the academic life that leads professors to stake their entire careers on work that maybe two people on the planet will ever read. Jim can't stand to even think about the article.
His thinking all this without having set fire to the typescript only made him appear to himself as more of a hypocrite and a fool. (1.48)
The article seems to symbolize Jim's failure in the whole academic enterprise and his feeling that the entire effort is pointless and trivial.