A
campus novel, also known as an
academic novel, is a
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
whose main action is set in and around the
campusA campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
of a
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. The genre in its current form dates back to the early 1950s.
The Groves of Academe by
Mary McCarthyMary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic, and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
, published in 1952, is often quoted as the earliest example, although in
Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents,
Elaine ShowalterElaine Showalter is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics....
discusses C.P. Snow's
The MastersStrangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. They deal - amongst other things - with questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power....
, of the previous year, and several earlier novels have an academic setting and the same characteristics, as e.g.
A
campus novel, also known as an
academic novel, is a
novelA novel is a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
whose main action is set in and around the
campusA campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
of a
universityA university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
. The genre in its current form dates back to the early 1950s.
The Groves of Academe by
Mary McCarthyMary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic, and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
, published in 1952, is often quoted as the earliest example, although in
Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents,
Elaine ShowalterElaine Showalter is an American literary critic, feminist, and writer on cultural and social issues. She is one of the founders of feminist literary criticism in United States academia, developing the concept and practice of gynocritics....
discusses C.P. Snow's
The MastersStrangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. They deal - amongst other things - with questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power....
, of the previous year, and several earlier novels have an academic setting and the same characteristics, as e.g.
Dorothy L. SayersDorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist...
'
Gaudy NightGaudy Night is a mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the twelfth in her popular series about gentleman sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey, and the third featuring crime writer Harriet Vane.-Synopsis:...
of 1935 (see below).
Many well-known campus novels, such as
Kingsley AmisSir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism...
's
Lucky JimLucky Jim is an academic satire written by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1954 by Victor Gollancz. It was Amis's first published novel, and won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction...
and those of
David LodgeDavid John Lodge CBE, is a British author. Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular in his novels...
, are
comicA comic novel is a work of fiction in which the writer seeks to amuse the reader, sometimes with subtlety and as part of a carefully woven narrative; sometimes, above all other considerations....
or
satiricalSatire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods,...
, often counterpointing intellectual pretensions and human weaknesses. Some, however, attempt a serious treatment of university life; examples include C.P. Snow's
The MastersStrangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. They deal - amongst other things - with questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power....
,
J.M. CoetzeeJohn Maxwell Coetzee is an author and academic from South Africa. He is now an Australian citizen and lives in South Australia...
's
Disgrace and
Philip RothPhilip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 story collection Goodbye, Columbus, and has since become one of the most honored authors of his generation: Roth's books have twice been awarded the National Book Award, twice the National Book Critics Circle award, and...
's
The Human StainThe Human Stain is a novel by Philip Roth. It is set in late 1990s rural New England. Its first person narrator is 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, a character in previous Roth novels, including American Pastoral and I Married a Communist ; these two books form a loose trilogy with The Human...
. Novels such as
Evelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was an English writer, best known for such darkly humorous and satirical novels as Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Scoop, A Handful of Dust, and The Loved One, as well as for serious works, such as Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honour trilogy that clearly...
's
Brideshead RevisitedBrideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love...
that focus on students rather than faculty are often considered to belong to a distinct genre, sometimes termed
varsity novelA 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. Novels that focus on faculty rather than students are often considered to belong to a distinct genre,...
s.
A subgenre is the
campus murder mysteryCrime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
, where the closed university setting substitutes for the country house of
Golden Age detective novelsA whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final pages of the...
; examples include Dorothy L. Sayers'
Gaudy Night,
Carolyn Gold HeilbrunCarolyn Gold Heilbrun was an American academic and prolific feminist author of both important academic studies and popular mystery novels under the pen name of Amanda Cross....
's
Kate FanslerKate Fansler is the main character in a series of fourteen mystery novels written by Carolyn Gold Heilbrun under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. Like Heilbrun, Fansler was a literature professor at a prestigious New York university. In the books, she is called upon to solve mysteries set in an academic...
mysteries and
Colin DexterNorman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels.-Early life and career:...
's
The Silent World of Nicholas QuinnDetective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse is a fictional character in a series of thirteen detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33 episode television series produced by Central Independent Television from 1987–2000, in which he was portrayed by John Thaw...
.
Themes
Campus novels exploit the closed world of the university setting, with 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).
Significant examples
- The Masters
Strangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. They deal - amongst other things - with questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power....
by C.P. Snow (1951)
- The Groves of Academe
The Groves of Academe is the title of a novel by American writer Mary McCarthy. Considered to be one of the first academic novels, it concerns the sequence of events that take place after Henry Mulcahy, a literary instructor at the fictive Jocelyn College, learns that his teaching appointment will...
by Mary McCarthyMary Therese McCarthy was an American author, critic, and political activist.- Early life :Born in Seattle, Washington, to Roy Winfield McCarthy and his wife, the former Therese Preston, McCarthy was orphaned at the age of six when both her parents died in the great flu epidemic of 1918...
(1952)
- Lucky Jim
Lucky Jim is an academic satire written by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1954 by Victor Gollancz. It was Amis's first published novel, and won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction...
by Kingsley AmisSir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than twenty novels, three collections of poetry, short stories, radio and television scripts, and books of social and literary criticism...
(1954)
- Pictures from an Institution
Pictures from an Institution is a novel by American poet Randall Jarrell. It is what one might call an academic satire, focusing on the oddities of academic life, in particular the interpersonal relationships among the characters and their private lives...
by Randall JarrellRandall Jarrell was an American poet, critic,children's author, essayist, and novelist. He was the 11th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.-Biography:...
(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:...
by Angus WilsonSir Angus Frank Johnstone Wilson, CBE was an English novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot and later received a knighthood for his services to literature.-Biography:Wilson was born in Bexhill, Sussex, England, to...
(1956)
- Pnin
Pnin is the fourth novel written in English by Vladimir Nabokov; it was published in 1957.-Plot summary:The book follows a Russian-born professor named Timofey Pavlovich Pnin living in the United States....
by Vladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer....
(1957)
- Eating People is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury
Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was a British author and academic.-Life:Born in 1932 in Sheffield, Bradbury was the son of a railwayman; his family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
(1959)
- A New Life
A New Life is a semi-autobiographical campus novel by Bernard Malamud first published in 1961.-External links:*Jonathan Yardley: , The Washington Post ....
by Bernard MalamudBernard Malamud was an author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the 20th century...
(1961)
- Giles Goat-Boy, Or, The Revised New Syllabus
Giles Goat-Boy is a 1966 novel written by John Barth. It is a satire and allegory of the American campus culture of the time.A paperback edition was issued in Garden City, N.Y...
by John BarthJohn Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work....
(1966)
- Porterhouse Blue
Porterhouse Blue is a novel written by Tom Sharpe, first published in 1974. There was a Channel 4 TV series in 1987 based on the novel, adapted by Malcolm Bradbury...
by Tom SharpeTom Sharpe is an English satirical author, born in London and educated at Elmhurst School for Boys, Lancing College and Pembroke College, Cambridge...
(1974)
- Changing Places
Changing Places 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 puns on Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. A successful sequel, Small World, was published in 1984.-Synopsis:Changing Places...
by David LodgeDavid John Lodge CBE, is a British author. Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular in his novels...
(1975)
- The History Man
The History Man is a campus novel by the British author Malcolm Bradbury set in 1972 in the fictional seaside town of Watermouth in the South of England. Watermouth bears some resemblance to Brighton. For example, there is a frequent and fast train service to London.-Plot introduction:Howard Kirk...
by Malcolm Bradbury Sir Malcolm Stanley Bradbury CBE was a British author and academic.-Life:Born in 1932 in Sheffield, Bradbury was the son of a railwayman; his family moved to London in 1935, but returned to Sheffield in 1941 with his brother and mother...
(1975)
- 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:Morse investigates the apparently motiveless killing of Nicholas Quinn, a deaf but gifted academic recently appointed the newest member of the Oxford Foreign Examinations...
(The Morse SeriesDetective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse is a fictional character in a series of thirteen detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33 episode television series produced by Central Independent Television from 1987–2000, in which he was portrayed by John Thaw...
) by Colin DexterNorman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels.-Early life and career:...
(1977)
- The Big U
The Big U is Neal Stephenson's first published novel, a satire of campus life.-Plot summary:The story follows the misadventures of a socially inept physics student, a pair of gun-wielding lesbians, a hardcore LARP/war gaming club, and other misfits through a series of escalating events that...
by Neal StephensonNeal Town Stephenson is an American writer, known for his speculative fiction works, which have been variously categorized science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk. He has also written under the pseudonym of Stephen Bury.Stephenson explores areas such as mathematics,...
(1984)
- Small World
Small World: An Academic Romance is a humorous "campus novel" by the British writer David Lodge. It is a sequel to Lodge's 1975 novel, Changing Places....
by David LodgeDavid John Lodge CBE, is a British author. Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular in his novels...
(1984)
- White Noise
White Noise is the eighth novel by Don DeLillo, and is an example of postmodern literature. Widely considered his "breakout" work, the book won the National Book Award in 1985 and brought him to the attention of a much larger audience...
by Don DeLilloDon DeLillo is an American author whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...
(1985)
- Redback by Howard Jacobson
Howard Jacobson is a British author and journalist. He is best known for writing comic novels that often revolve around the dilemmas of British Jewish characters.-Biography:...
(1986)
- Nice Work
Nice Work is a novel by British author David Lodge. It won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award in 1988 and was also shortlisted for the Booker prize. In 1989 it was made into a four-part BBC television series starring Warren Clarke and Haydn Gwynne...
by David LodgeDavid John Lodge CBE, is a British author. Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular in his novels...
(1988)
- Possession: A Romance
Possession: A Romance is a 1990 bestselling novel by British writer A. S. Byatt. It is a winner of the prestigious Man Booker Prize.Part historical as well as contemporary fiction, the title Possession refers to issues of ownership and independence between lovers, the practice of collecting...
by A. S. ByattDame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist and poet. She is daughter of His Honour John Frederick Drabble, QC and late Kathleen Marie Bloor and is married to Peter Duffy. She is usually known as A. S...
(1990)
- The Crown of Columbus by Louise Erdrich
Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is a Native American author of novels, poetry, and children's books. She is an enrolled member of the Anishinaabe nation and also has German, French and American ancestry...
and Michael DorrisMichael Anthony Dorris was a prominent American novelist and scholar. During his career he presented himself as Native American and this identity was a key part of his professional activities and his public reputation; but its factuality is in doubt...
(1991)
- The Secret History
The Secret History, the first novel by Mississippi-born writer Donna Tartt, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1992. A 75,000 print order was made for the first edition , and the book became a bestseller.Set in New England, The Secret History tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics...
by Donna TarttDonna Tartt is an American writer and author of the novels The Secret History and The Little Friend . She won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend in 2003.-Early life:...
(1992)
- Japanese by Spring by Ishmael Reed
Ishmael Scott Reed is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. Reed is, along with Toni Morrison and Amiri Baraka, among the very best known African-American writers of their generation...
(1993)
- Galatea 2.2
Galatea 2.2 is a novel by Richard Powers. The novel is pseudo-autobiographical: the narrator is named Richard Powers and there is discussion of the four novels he wrote before Galatea 2.2 along with other references to his real biography. Richard Powers creates a version of himself for the novel...
by Richard PowersRichard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology.- Life and work :...
(1995)
- Moo
Moo is a 1995 novel by Jane Smiley. It is set in the American Midwest on the fictional campus of Moo University during the 1989-1990 academic year...
by Jane SmileyJane Smiley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist.-Career:Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, and graduated from John Burroughs School. She obtained an A.B. at Vassar College, then earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the...
(1995)
- Death is Now My Neighbour
Death is Now My Neighbour is a crime novel by Colin Dexter, the twelfth novel in the Inspector Morse series.-Synopsis:At Number 17 on Bloxham Drive, young Rachel James is shot point blank through her kitchen window...
(The Morse SeriesDetective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse is a fictional character in a series of thirteen detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33 episode television series produced by Central Independent Television from 1987–2000, in which he was portrayed by John Thaw...
) by Colin DexterNorman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels.-Early life and career:...
(1996)
- Straight Man
Straight Man is a novel by Richard Russo set at the fictional West Central Pennsylvania State University in Railton, Pennsylvania. It is a mid-life crisis tale told in the first person by William Henry Devereaux, Jr., the unlikely interim chairman of the English department...
by Richard RussoRichard Russo is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Born in Johnstown and raised in nearby Gloversville, he earned a Bachelor's degree, a Master of Fine Arts degree, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Arizona, which he attended from 1967 through 1979...
(1997)
- Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
John Maxwell Coetzee is an author and academic from South Africa. He is now an Australian citizen and lives in South Australia...
(1999)
- The Human Stain
The Human Stain is a novel by Philip Roth. It is set in late 1990s rural New England. Its first person narrator is 65-year-old author Nathan Zuckerman, a character in previous Roth novels, including American Pastoral and I Married a Communist ; these two books form a loose trilogy with The Human...
by Philip RothPhilip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 story collection Goodbye, Columbus, and has since become one of the most honored authors of his generation: Roth's books have twice been awarded the National Book Award, twice the National Book Critics Circle award, and...
(2000)
- Thinks ...
Thinks ... is a novel by British author David Lodge.-Plot summary:The novel is exclusively set at the University of Gloucester, based loosely on the University of York thanks to the author's brief residence there...
by David LodgeDavid John Lodge CBE, is a British author. Lodge often satirises academia in general and the humanities in particular in his novels...
(2001)
- Starter for Ten
Starter for Ten by David Nicholls is a novel first published in 2003 about the character, Brian Jackson and his first year of university , his attempts to get on the Granada Television quiz show University Challenge, and his tentative attempts at romance with Alice Harbinson, another member of the...
by David NichollsThe Reverend David Gwyn Nicholls, DLitt was the author of more than one hundred publications in the fields of Theology, Politics, and Caribbean Studies.-Biography:...
(2003)
- Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z., by Debra Weinstein (2004)
- 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, closely modeled after Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University...
by Tom WolfeThomas Kennerly Wolfe, Jr. , known as Tom Wolfe, is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Biography:...
(2004)
- Final Exam by P.F. Kluge (2005)
- On Beauty
On Beauty is a 2005 novel by British author Zadie Smith. It takes its title from an essay by Elaine Scarry . The story follows the lives of a mixed-race British/American family living in the United States...
by Zadie SmithZadie Smith is an English novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on Granta's list of 20 best young authors.-Early life:...
(2005)
- The Catastrophist, by Lawrence Douglas (2006)
- The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton, by Michael Collins
-People:In politics:* Michael Collins , Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician* Michael Collins , Irish politician...
(2006)
- WALDEN, by Michael T. Dolan (2006)
- Gone Tomorrow by P.F. Kluge (2008)
- Indignation
Indignation is a novel by Philip Roth, released by Houghton Mifflin on September 16, 2008. It is his twenty-ninth book.-Plot:Set in America in 1951, the second year of the Korean War, Indignation is narrated by Marcus Messner, a college student from Newark, New Jersey, who describes his sophomore...
by Philip RothPhilip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 story collection Goodbye, Columbus, and has since become one of the most honored authors of his generation: Roth's books have twice been awarded the National Book Award, twice the National Book Critics Circle award, and...
(2008)
External links