A campus novel, also known as an academic novel, is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

whose main action is set in and around the

campus A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a college campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls, student centers or dining halls, and park-like se ...

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, t ...

. 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 discusses C. P. Snow's '' The Masters'', 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 1923, ...

's ''

The Professor's House ''The Professor's House'' is a novel by American novelist Willa Cather. Published in 1925, the novel was written over the course of several years. Cather first wrote the centerpiece, “Tom Outland's Story,” and then later wrote the two framing ...

'' of 1925,

Régis Messac Régis Messac (2 August 1893 – 1945) was a French essayist, poet and translator. Published works ;Studies * '' Le « Detective Novel » et l'influence de la pensée scientifique'' (1929) ; new edition, corrected and annotated, preface by C ...

'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'' 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 an ...

's '' Lucky Jim'' and those of David Lodge, are

comic a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...

, often counterpointing intellectual pretensions and human weaknesses. Some, however, attempt a serious treatment of university life; examples include C. P. Snow's '' The Masters'',

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,''

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, ''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 ''I Am Charlotte Simmons'' is a 2004 novel by Tom Wolfe, concerning sexual and status relationships at the fictional Dupont University. Wolfe researched the novel by talking to students at North Carolina, Florida, Penn, Duke, Stanford, and Michi ...

''). Novels such as Evelyn Waugh's '' Brideshead Revisited'' that focus on students rather than faculty are often considered to belong to a distinct genre, sometimes termed

varsity novel A varsity novel is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university and focuses on students rather than faculty. Examples include Evelyn Waugh's ''Brideshead Revisited'', Donna Tartt's ''The Secret History'', Tom Sharpe's ' ...

s. A subgenre is the campus

murder mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

, where the closed university setting substitutes for the country house of Golden Age detective novels; examples include Dorothy L. Sayers' ''Gaudy Night'', Edmund Crispin's ''

Gervase Fen Gervase Fen is a fictional amateur detective and Oxford Professor of English Language and Literature created by Edmund Crispin. Fen appears in nine novels and two books of short stories published between 1944 and 1979. Fen is an unconventional de ...

'' mysteries,

Carolyn Gold Heilbrun Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (January 13, 1926 – October 9, 2003) was an American academic at Columbia University, the first woman to receive tenure in the English department, and a prolific feminist author of academic studies. In addition, beginning ...

's ''

Kate Fansler Kate Fansler is the main character in a series of fourteen mystery novels written by Carolyn Gold Heilbrun from 1964-2002, under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. Overview Like Heilbrun, Fansler was a literature professor at a prestigious New York unive ...

'' 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'', fro ...

's ''

The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn ''The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn'' is a crime novel by Colin Dexter, the third novel in Inspector Morse series. Synopsis The Oxford Foreign Examinations Syndicate runs school exams in the Persian Gulf and other places with a British connec ...

''.

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

* '' The Masters'' by C. P. Snow (1951) * ''

The Groves of Academe ''The Groves of Academe'' (1952) is a novel by United States, American writer Mary McCarthy (author), Mary McCarthy. Considered to be one of the first campus novel, academic novels, it concerns the sequence of events that take place after Henry M ...

'' by Mary McCarthy (1952) * '' Lucky Jim'' 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 characters and their private lives. The ...

'' by Randall Jarrell (1954) * ''

Anglo-Saxon Attitudes ''Anglo-Saxon Attitudes'' is a satirical novel by Angus Wilson, published in 1956. It was Wilson's most popular book, and many consider it his best work. Plot summary The novel deals with the significance of two connected events that happened ...

'' by

Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Middle Age of ...

(1956) * ''

Pnin ''Pnin'' () is Vladimir Nabokov's 13th novel and his fourth written in English; it was published in 1957. The success of ''Pnin'' in the United States launched Nabokov's career into literary prominence. Its eponymous protagonist, Timofey Pavlovi ...

'' by Vladimir Nabokov (1957) * '' A New Life'' by

Bernard Malamud Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...

(1961) * '' Stoner'' by

John Williams John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...

(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 inadequa ...

'' 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 upst ...

'' by

Richard Farina Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong ...

(1966) * '' Giles Goat-Boy, Or, The Revised New Syllabus'' by John Barth (1966) * '' Other Men's Daughters by Richard G. Stern (1973) * '' The War Between the Tates'' by

Alison Lurie Alison Stewart Lurie (September 3, 1926December 3, 2020) was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel '' Foreign Affairs''. Although better known as a novelist, she wrote many non-fiction boo ...

(1974) * ''

Porterhouse Blue ''Porterhouse Blue'' is a novel written by Tom Sharpe, first published in 1974. A satirical look at Cambridge life and the struggle between tradition and reform, ''Porterhouse Blue'' tells the story of Skullion, the Head Porter of Porterhouse, ...

'' by Tom Sharpe (1974) * '' Changing Places'' by David Lodge (1975) * ''

The History Man Bradbury's best known novel, ''The History Man'', a campus novel published in 1975, is a satire of academic life in the "glass and steel" universities, the ones established in the 1960s which followed the "redbricks". In 1981 the book was made ...

'' by Malcolm Bradbury (1975) * ''

'' ( The Morse Series) by

(1977) * ''

The Professor of Desire ''The Professor of Desire'' is a 1977 novel by Philip Roth. It describes the youth, the college years and the academic career of professor David Kepesh, and beside that, his sexual desires. The book was nominated for the National Book Critics Circ ...

'' by

(1977) * '' La Polka piqué'' by Maurice Couturier 1982 * ''

The Big U ''The Big U'' (1984) is a novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. His first published novel, it is a satire of campus life. Plot The story chronicles the disillusionment of a number of young intellectuals as they encounter the realities ...

'' by

Neal Stephenson Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work exp ...

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

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

(1987) * ''

The Rules of Attraction ''The Rules of Attraction'' is a satirical black comedy novel by Bret Easton Ellis published in 1987. The novel follows a handful of rowdy and often sexually promiscuous, spoiled bohemian students at a liberal arts college in 1980s New Hampshire ...

'' 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 w ...

(1987) * '' Nice Work'' by David Lodge (1988) * '' Possession: A Romance'' by

A. S. Byatt Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than t ...

(1990) * ''

The Crown of Columbus Louise Erdrich ( ; born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian ...

'' by

Louise Erdrich Louise Erdrich ( ; born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian ...

and

Michael Dorris Michael Anthony Dorris (January 30, 1945 – April 10, 1997) was an American novelist and Academia, scholar who was the first Chair of the Native American Studies program at Dartmouth College. His works include the novel ''A Yellow Raft in Blue ...

(1991) * '' The Secret History'' 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 c ...

(1992) * '' Japanese by Spring'' by

Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed (born February 22, 1938) is an American poet, novelist, essayist, songwriter, composer, playwright, editor and publisher known for his satirical works challenging American political culture. Perhaps his best-known work is '' M ...

(1993) * ''

Galatea 2.2 ''Galatea 2.2'' is a 1995 pseudo-autobiographical novel by American writer Richard Powers and a contemporary reworking of the Pygmalion myth. The book's narrator shares the same name as Powers, with the book referencing events and books in the a ...

'' 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'' by Michael Chabon (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 descen ...

'' 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 su ...

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

(1996) * '' Making History'' by Stephen Fry (1996) * ''

As She Climbed Across the Table ''As She Climbed Across the Table'' is a 1997 in literature, 1997 science fiction novel by the American writer Jonathan Lethem. It is a satirical story set on the fictional campus of Beauchamp University in Northern California. Particle physics, P ...

'' by

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was publishe ...

(1997) * '' Straight Man'' by

Richard Russo Richard Russo (July 15, 1949) is an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and teacher. Early life and education Russo was born in Johnstown, New York, and raised in nearby Gloversville. He earned a bachelor's degree, a Master o ...

(1997) * '' Disgrace'' by

J.M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Mapungubwe, 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 de ...

(1999) * '' The Human Stain'' by

(2000) * '' Thinks ...'' by David Lodge (2001) * '' The Lecturer's Tale'' by

James Hynes James Hynes (born August 23, 1955) is an American novelist. Biography Hynes was born in Okemos, Michigan,''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale, 2004. and grew up in Big Rapids, Michigan. He currently resides in Austin, Texas, where he ...

(2001) * '' Starter for Ten'' by David Nicholls (2003) * ''

The Tatami Galaxy is a 2004 Japanese varsity novel written by Tomihiko Morimi and published by Ohta Publishing. Its first-person narrator is an unnamed upperclassman at Kyoto University reminiscing on the misadventures of his previous years of campus lif ...

'' by

Tomihiko Morimi is a Japanese writer from Nara Prefecture. He graduated from Kyoto University and his works often have Kyoto as the setting. In July 2018, it was announced that the first two of Morimi's original works to be published in English will be ''Pengu ...

(2004) * ''

'' by

(2004) * ''

On Beauty ''On Beauty'' is a 2005 novel by British author Zadie Smith, loosely based on ''Howards End'' by E. M. Forster. The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States, addresses ethnic and cultural dif ...

'' 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 IndigNation was Singapore's annual, month-long lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer pride season, first held in August 2005 to coincide with the republic's 40th National Day. Background IndigNation begun as a series of LGBT-themed events meant to f ...

'' by

(2008) * '' Invisible'' by

Paul Auster Paul Benjamin Auster (born February 3, 1947) is an American writer and film director. His notable works include ''The New York Trilogy'' (1987), ''Moon Palace'' (1989), ''The Music of Chance'' (1990), ''The Book of Illusions'' (2002), ''The Broo ...

(2009) * ''

The Marriage Plot ''The Marriage Plot'' is a 2011 novel by the American writer, Jeffrey Eugenides. The novel grew out of a manuscript that Eugenides began after the publication of his sophomore Pulitizer Prize-winning novel, ''Middlesex.'' Eugenides has stated tha ...

'' by Jeffrey Eugenides (2011) * '' The Art of Fielding'' by

Chad Harbach Chad Harbach (born 1975) is an American writer. An editor at the journal '' n + 1'', he is the author of the 2011 novel '' The Art of Fielding''. Early life and education Harbach grew up in Racine, Wisconsin. His father was an accountant and his ...

(2011) * '' Death of the Black-Haired Girl'' by Robert Stone (2013) * '' Cow Country'' by Adrian Jones Pearson (2015) * ''

Normal People ''Normal People'' is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. ''Normal People'' is Rooney's second novel, published after ''Conversations with Friends'' (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018. The book became a b ...

'' by Sally Rooney (2018) *'' Ninth House'' by Leigh Bardugo (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 the ...

'' 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: ''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