Campus Fictions: Exemption and the American Campus Novel (American Literature Readings in the 21st Century)

Campus Fictions argues that the academic novel balances utopian and regressive tendencies, reinforcing the crises we face in higher learning while simultaneously signposting hope for a worn institution. Whether a bestseller such as Erich Segal ’s romance Love Story (1970) or wonkier fare such as Don DeLillo’s White Noise (1985), the academic novel mystifies the academy not only to a wide public but also—worse—to readers who might describe themselves as sympathetic to higher learning. The book takes an eclectic approach to the academic novel with chapters discussing, for example, the genre’s rampant anti-intellectualism and its work refusals, studying novels such as Ishmael Reed’s Japanese by Spring (1993) and Julie Schumacher’s Dear Committee Members (2014). The book is also accompanied by the “Directory of the American Campus Novel ” file, which tracks the genre by year, by setting, and by other datapoints that readers might make use of. Responding directly to Jeffrey Williams, the renowned scholar of critical university studies who implores faculty to “teach the university,” the book ’s conclusion describes strategies for putting these novels into circulation in the classroom. Through this breadth, Campus Fictions establishes the importance of maintaining hope in the field of critical university studies, which tends toward apocalypticism and perhaps therefore toward disengagement. Acknowledgments Contents About the Author List of Figures 1 Introductions to the American Campus Novel Why the American Campus Novel? Authorship and Audiences On Campus Fictions Works Cited 2 Campus Characters: Exemption and Utopia on Campus Exemption and Big Men on Campus Exemption or Utopia? Works Cited 3 Anti-intellectualism, “Theory,” and the Reactionary Impulses of the Campus Novel Identity, Resentment, and Resistance to “Theory” “Competitive Thinking” and the Ends of Anti-Intellectualism Works Cited 4 Unauthorized Sex?: Sex, Power, and Privilege in the Campus Novel Elided Assaults and Imagined Predators in I Am Charlotte Simmons Parables of Ambivalence: Ironies of Assault and Harassment in Blue Angel and Vladímír On Sex and Resentments Works Cited 5 Subordinations of Academic Freedom: “Speech” as Campus Keyword and Codeword Speech and Manners in The Groves of Academe The Hog, the Governor, and the Mining Magnate; Or, Academic Freedom in Moo Dithering on Academic Freedom Works Cited 6 Identity and Culture War on Campus Pseudo Cool and the Fates of Western Civilization “The Raw I”: Identity and Resentment in The Human Stain Whose Affirmation? Works Cited 7 Hardly Workin; or, the Valences of Productivism in Campus Novels Paradise as Work Refusal Work as Play in Dear Committee Members Ambivalence in a Long Day Gendering Work and The Life of the Mind Closure or Horizon? Works Cited 8 On Teaching the University Works Cited Appendix I: Further Data Works Cited Index