Whether a classic piece such as Vladmir Nabokov’s Pnin or a modern rendition of academia like Donna Tartt’s popular The Secret History, the so-called ‘campus novel’ captures the complexities of the social, political and hierarchical dynamics of the academic world. The intricate exploration of the academic space allows the reader to undergo not just a literary journey through the physical arena of academia, but also the broader societal themes shaping it. It has become revolutionised as one of the few literary genres that is defined by its setting, rather than its thematic subject matter, plot, or tone, and can be works of romantic fiction, memoirs, thrillers, crime novels, etc. The closed-off, yet expansive space of the university campus facilitates an interrogation of a wide range of aspects that make up modern academic life.
The campus novel was popularised in the mid-20th -entury, a time of great cultural and social change, where new political and philosophical ideas developed rapidly. Through this literary sub-genre, the changing social dynamics of the time were
represented and renegotiated to accommodate the changing academic experience – Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited (the inspiration for the explosively popular 2023 film, Saltburn by Emerald Fennel) utilises the archetype of the ‘outsider’ protagonist in Oxford’s elitist academic environment to capture the 1940s aristocracy’s growing disillusionment with and nostalgia for the dated values of the pre-war era of British society.
Across the Atlantic, other novels like John Williams’ Stoner present the intricacies of political ideology and romantic relationships through the protagonist’s interest in the study of literature and academics in a small-town university in the US, tying academia directly to human connection and bonds. The realism of the campus novel and its offer of a literary space in which individuals of all ages can find comfort in its familiarity is captured by many writers of the contemporary era – Sally Rooney’s Normal People explores the differences between the lives of Connell and Marianne at Trinity College Dublin, and how their college experience has come to define their self-perception and relationships with each other, an important facet of academic life.
Perhaps the most potent exploration of the Campus novel’s interrogation of human relationships can be found in Zadie Smith’s On Beauty, a book which uses the deep-rooted academic debate between two art history professors on the work of Dutch painter Rembrandt to present how academic theory entangles the political ideologies, gender dynamics, and self-perceptions of those around the central characters. The domain of the campus novel thus remains an important literary creation capturing the complexities and intricacies of student life, its ups and downs, its highs and lows. And as the number of students enrolling on further education drops, it emerges not just as a piece of creative entertainment, but as a testimony to the centrality of the academic space to the development of the individual.
Photo Via Albane Mbow for The Student