A campus novel, also known as an academic novel, is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. The genre in its current form dates back to the early 1950s. ''The Groves of Academe'' by Mary McCarthy, published in 1952, is often quoted as the earliest example, although in ''Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents'',

Elaine Showalter Elaine Showalter (born January 21, 1941) is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She influenced feminist literary criticism in the United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocr ...

discusses

C. P. Snow Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow, (15 October 1905 – 1 July 1980) was an English novelist and physical chemist who also served in several important positions in the British Civil Service and briefly in the UK government.''The Columbia Encyclope ...

's ''

The Masters The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first ma ...

'', of the previous year, and several earlier novels have an academic setting and the same characteristics, such as

Willa Cather Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including '' O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and '' My Ántonia''. In 192 ...

's '' The Professor's House'' of 1925, Régis Messac's '' Smith Conundrum'' first published between 1928 and 1931 and

Dorothy L. Sayers Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...

' ''

Gaudy Night ''Gaudy Night'' (1935) is a mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the tenth featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, and the third including Harriet Vane. The dons of Harriet Vane's '' alma mater'', the all-female Shrewsbury College, Oxford (based on S ...

'' of 1935 (see below). Many well-known campus novels, such as

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social a ...

's ''

Lucky Jim ''Lucky Jim'' is a novel by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1954 by Victor Gollancz. It was Amis's first novel and won the 1955 Somerset Maugham Award for fiction. The novel follows the exploits of the eponymous James (Jim) Dixon, a reluctan ...

'' and those of David Lodge, are comic or satirical, often counterpointing intellectual pretensions and human weaknesses. Some, however, attempt a serious treatment of university life; examples include C. P. Snow's ''

'',

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in ...

's ''

Disgrace ''Disgrace'' is a novel by J. M. Coetzee, published in 1999. It won the Booker Prize. The writer was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature four years after its publication. Plot David Lurie is a white South African professor of English wh ...

,''

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophicall ...

's ''

The Human Stain ''The Human Stain'' is a novel by Philip Roth, published May 5, 2000. The book is set in Western Massachusetts in the late 1990s. It is narrated by 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, who appears in several earlier Roth novels, and who also fig ...

, ''and Norene Moskalski's'' Nocturne, Opus 1: Sea Foam.'' The novels are usually told from the viewpoint of a faculty member (e.g., ''Lucky Jim'') or the viewpoint of a student (e.g.,

Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...

's '' I Am Charlotte Simmons''). Novels such as

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

's ''

Brideshead Revisited ''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles ...

'' that focus on students rather than faculty are often considered to belong to a distinct genre, sometimes termed varsity novels. A subgenre is the campus murder mystery, where the closed university setting substitutes for the country house of Golden Age detective novels; examples include Dorothy L. Sayers' ''Gaudy Night'',

Edmund Crispin Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery (usually credited as Bruce Montgomery) (2 October 1921 – 15 September 1978), an English crime writer and composer known for his Gervase Fen novels and for his musical scores for ...

's '' Gervase Fen'' mysteries, Carolyn Gold Heilbrun's '' Kate Fansler'' mysteries and

Colin Dexter Norman Colin Dexter (29 September 1930 – 21 March 2017) was an English crime writer known for his ''Inspector Morse'' series of novels, which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as an ITV television series, ''Inspector Morse'', fr ...

's '' The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn''.

Themes

Campus novels exploit the fictional possibilities created by a closed environment of the university, with idiosyncratic characters inhabiting unambiguous hierarchies. They may describe the reaction of a fixed socio-cultural perspective (the academic staff) to new social attitudes (the new student intake).

Examples

* ''

'' by

(1951) * '' The Groves of Academe'' by Mary McCarthy (1952) * ''

'' by

(1954) * ''

Pictures from an Institution ''Pictures from an Institution: a Comedy'' is a 1954 novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is an academic satire, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the relationships between the fictional character, characters and the ...

'' by

Randall Jarrell Randall Jarrell (May 6, 1914 – October 14, 1965) was an American poet, literary critic, children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—a position that now bears the title Poe ...

(1954) * '' Anglo-Saxon Attitudes'' by Angus Wilson (1956) * '' Pnin'' by

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

(1957) * '' A New Life'' by Bernard Malamud (1961) * '' Stoner'' by John Williams (1965) * ''

The Sterile Cuckoo ''The Sterile Cuckoo'' (released in the UK as ''Pookie'') is a 1969 American comedy-drama film by producer-director Alan J. Pakula that tells the story of an eccentric young couple whose relationship deepens despite their differences and inadeq ...

'' by John Nichols (1965) * ''

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me ''Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me'' is a novel by Richard Fariña. Parts campus novel and travelogue, the book was first published in 1966 and is largely based on Fariña's college experiences and travels. Set variously in an upstat ...

'' by Richard Farina (1966) * '' Giles Goat-Boy, Or, The Revised New Syllabus'' by

John Barth John Simmons Barth (; born May 27, 1930) is an American writer who is best known for his postmodern and metafictional fiction. His most highly regarded and influential works were published in the 1960s, and include ''The Sot-Weed Factor'', a sa ...

(1966) * '' Other Men's Daughters by

Richard G. Stern Richard Gustave Stern (February 25, 1928 – January 24, 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer, and educator. Stern was born in New York City on February 25, 1928. He attended the University of North Carolina from which he gra ...

(1973) * ''

The War Between the Tates ''The War Between the Tates'' is a campus novel by Alison Lurie that takes place at an elite university during the upheavals of the late 1960s and gently and deftly skewers all sides in the turmoils and conflicts of that era — opposition to ...

'' by Alison Lurie (1974) * '' Porterhouse Blue'' by

Tom Sharpe Thomas Ridley Sharpe (30 March 1928 – 6 June 2013) was an English satirical novelist, best known for his '' Wilt'' series, as well as ''Porterhouse Blue'' and ''Blott on the Landscape,'' all three of which were adapted for television. Life ...

(1974) * ''

Changing Places ''Changing Places'' (1975) is the first "campus novel" by British novelist David Lodge. The subtitle is "A Tale of Two Campuses", and thus both the title and subtitle are literary allusions to Charles Dickens' ''A Tale of Two Cities''. It is t ...

'' by David Lodge (1975) * '' The History Man'' by

Malcolm Bradbury Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury, (7 September 1932 – 27 November 2000) was an English author and academic. Life Bradbury was born in Sheffield, the son of a railwayman. His family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with ...

(1975) * '' The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn'' ( The Morse Series) by

(1977) * '' The Professor of Desire'' by

(1977) * '' La Polka piqué'' by Maurice Couturier 1982 * '' The Big U'' by Neal Stephenson (1984) * '' Small World'' by David Lodge (1984) * ''

White Noise In signal processing, white noise is a random signal having equal intensity at different frequencies, giving it a constant power spectral density. The term is used, with this or similar meanings, in many scientific and technical disciplines ...

'' by

Don DeLillo Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, perf ...

(1985) * '' Crossing to Safety'' by

Wallace Stegner Wallace Earle Stegner (February 18, 1909 – April 13, 1993) was an American novelist, short story writer, environmentalism, environmentalist, and historian, often called "The Dean of Western Writers". He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 and the U. ...

(1987) * '' The Rules of Attraction'' by

Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author, screenwriter, short-story writer, and director. Ellis was first regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique, as a ...

(1987) * ''

Nice Work ''Nice Work'' is a 1988 novel by British author David Lodge. It is the final volume of Lodge's "Campus Trilogy", after ''Changing Places'' (1975) and '' Small World: An Academic Romance'' (1984). ''Nice Work'' won the ''Sunday Express'' Book ...

'' by David Lodge (1988) * '' Possession: A Romance'' by A. S. Byatt (1990) * '' The Crown of Columbus'' by Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris (1991) * ''

The Secret History ''The Secret History'' is the first novel by the American author Donna Tartt, published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 1992. Set in New England, the campus novel tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at Hampden Colleg ...

'' by

Donna Tartt Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American novelist and essayist. Early life Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her fa ...

(1992) * ''

Tam Lin Tam (or Tamas) Lin (also called Tamlane, Tamlin, Tambling, Tomlin, Tam Lien, Tam-a-Line, Tam Lyn, or Tam Lane) is a character in a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. It is also associated with a reel of the same name, also ...

'' by

Pamela Dean Pamela Collins Dean Dyer-Bennet (born 1953), better known as Pamela Dean, is an American fantasy author whose best-known book is ''Tam Lin'', based on the Child Ballad of the same name, in which the Scottish fairy story is set on a midwestern ...

(1992) * '' Japanese by Spring'' by Ishmael Reed (1993) * '' Galatea 2.2'' by

Richard Powers Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel '' The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.Wonder Boys ''Wonder Boys'' is a 1995 novel by the American writer Michael Chabon. It was adapted into a film with the same title in 2000. Plot summary Pittsburgh professor and author Grady Tripp is working on an unwieldy 2,611-page manuscript that is mean ...

'' by

Michael Chabon Michael Chabon ( ; born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...

(1995) * ''

Moo A MOO ("MUD, object-oriented") is a text-based online virtual reality system to which multiple users (players) are connected at the same time. The term MOO is used in two distinct, but related, senses. One is to refer to those programs descend ...

'' by

Jane Smiley Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel ''A Thousand Acres'' (1991). Biography Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a s ...

(1995) * '' Death Is Now My Neighbour'' ( The Morse Series) by

(1996) * '' Making History'' by

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

(1996) * '' As She Climbed Across the Table'' by Jonathan Lethem (1997) * ''

Straight Man The straight man is a stock character in a comedy performance, especially a double act, sketch comedy, or farce. When a comedy partner behaves eccentrically, the straight man is expected to maintain composure. The direct contribution to the c ...

'' by Richard Russo (1997) * ''

'' by J.M. Coetzee (1999) * ''

'' by

(2000) * '' Thinks ...'' by David Lodge (2001) * '' The Lecturer's Tale'' by James Hynes (2001) * '' Starter for Ten'' by David Nicholls (2003) * '' The Tatami Galaxy'' by Tomihiko Morimi (2004) * '' I Am Charlotte Simmons'' by

(2004) * '' On Beauty'' by

Zadie Smith Zadie Smith FRSL (born Sadie; 25 October 1975) is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, ''White Teeth'' (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She has been a tenured professor ...

(2005) * '' Indignation'' by

(2008) * ''

Invisible Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light in ...

'' by Paul Auster (2009) * '' The Marriage Plot'' by

Jeffrey Eugenides Jeffrey Kent Eugenides (born March 8, 1960) is an American novelist and short story writer. He has written numerous short stories and essays, as well as three novels: ''The Virgin Suicides'' (1993), ''Middlesex'' (2002), and'' The Marriage Plot'' ...

(2011) * '' The Art of Fielding'' by Chad Harbach (2011) * '' Death of the Black-Haired Girl'' by Robert Stone (2013) * ''

Cow Country ''Cow Country'' is a 1953 American Western film directed by Lesley Selander and written by Adele Buffington and Thomas W. Blackburn. The film stars Edmond O'Brien, Helen Westcott, Robert Lowery, Barton MacLane, Peggie Castle, Robert Barrat a ...

'' by Adrian Jones Pearson (2015) * '' Normal People'' by

Sally Rooney Sally Rooney (born 20 February 1991) is an Irish author and screenwriter. She has published three novels: ''Conversations with Friends'' (2017), '' Normal People'' (2018), and ''Beautiful World, Where Are You'' (2021). ''Normal People'' was adap ...

(2018) *''

Ninth House ''Ninth House'' is a paranormal fantasy novel by American author Leigh Bardugo, published by Flatiron Books in 2019. Premise The novel follows unlikely Yale University freshman 20-year-old Galaxy "Alex" Stern, a high school drop out and homicid ...

'' by

Leigh Bardugo Leigh Bardugo ( he, לי ברדוגו) is an Israeli-American fantasy author. She is best known for her young adult Grishaverse novels, which include the ''Shadow and Bone'' trilogy, the ''Six of Crows'' duology, and the '' King of Scars'' duolo ...

(2019) * ''

Real Life Real life is a phrase used originally in literature to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds, and in acting to distinguish between actors and the characters they portray. It has become a popular term on th ...

'' by Brandon Taylor (2020) * '' Love & Virtue'' by Diana Reid (2021)

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Anderson, Christian K. & John R. Thelin (2009). “Campus Life Revealed: Tracking Down the Rich Resources of American Collegiate Fiction.” Journal of Higher Education 80(1), 106-113. *

Kenneth Womack Kenneth Womack (born January 24, 1966) is an American writer, literary critic, public speaker, and music historian, particularly focusing on the cultural influence of the Beatles. He is the author of the bestselling ''Solid State: The Story of A ...

: ''Academic Satire: The Campus Novel in Context'' in ''A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000'' (Blackwell Publishing 2005, ) *''Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature''. Merriam-Webster 1995,
eingeschränkte Online-Version (Google Books)
* McGurl, Mark. "The Program Era: Pluralisms in Postwar American Fiction." '' Critical Inquiry'' 32.1 (Autumn 2005): 102-109. * Showalter, Elaine. ''Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents '' (OUP; 2005; ) *Carter, Ian. ''Ancient Cultures of Conceit: British University Fiction in the Post-War Years'' (Routledge, Chapman & Hall; 1990; ) *Philippe Chardin. ''Alma Mater - premier roman comique inspiré par l'université française'', Paris, Atlantica-Séguier, 2000. *Dorie LaRue. ''Learning Curves'', 2011.

External links

Edemariam A. 'Who's afraid of the campus novel?' ''Guardian'', 2 Oct 2004Showalter E. 'What I read and what I read for' & 'The Fifties: Ivory towers'
(from ''Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents'')
Flavorwire. 'The Fifty Greatest Campus Novels Ever written.'
(Elizabeth Spiers, Editorial Director) {{DEFAULTSORT:Campus Novel * Education in popular culture Literary genres

Themes

Examples

See also

Notes and references

Bibliography

External links