Another article, another inspiration to dig deep. During my preparation for NET, I prepared a note on Campus Novels. " Write the top five names of the authors and read the synopsis of their famous works from the internet," these lines echo as I write. That was it. This is what the whole genre had been reduced to given the paucity of time. There was no time to delve deeper.

Now, today, as I was scrolling through the articles, I came across the Campus Novel read from LitHub. What an excellent list! Many names haven't been heard until now. And even when i went through the list, i was more interested in reading the comment section. Well, there came more recommendations. Clearly, after reading the comments, I came to the conclusion that the list wasn't exhaustive, but a great starting point. 

You may ask, what is a Campus Novel? Is it like a school or a college campus? Well, your guess is quite correct. The novels written in this genre were set in academia. The genre dates back to the 1950s. Its inception is credited to Mary McCarthy's 'The Groves of Academe'. But this is disputed by Elaine Showalter saying that novels dating back to previous years show similar settings. You know Showalter, right? This question is not for readers from non-English backgrounds. You don't need to be a literature geek to know Showalter, just a reading of Feminist Criticism is enough from the sixth semester. 

Coming back to our original line of thought- campus novels are set in and around the university campus. The finishing school of Jane Eyre also came to my mind( but that doesn't qualify as a Campus Novel as only a portion of the novel depicts her education). Then, there is Harry Potter! But this mention falls under varsity novels, the sub-genre of Campus Novels. How the former is different from the latter? While Campus Novels are narrated from the point of view of faculties, the varsity novels are narrated from the point of students. That's the basic difference. 

The list that I made during my preparation is as follows:

1) David Lodge's Campus Trilogy- Satiric and comic in tone, the writer is still alive, to my surprise; and he used to teach where Malala graduated. Two of the novels in this trilogy were also shortlisted for the Booker.

2) Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim- This has been the most popular mention. This was Amis's first novel and it also won Somerset Maugham Award.

3) C.P Snow's The Masters- Showalter in her Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and its Discontents discussed C.P Snow's The Masters and several others to raise a dispute on the origin of Campus Novels. Published in the series, Strangers and Brothers, The Masters was the first of the series to be published in the United States.

4) Philip Roth's The Human Stain- A novel set in the 90s was published in the year 2000. It has been adapted into a movie starring Antony Hopkins(You know him from 'The Silence of the Lambs'). The narrator is Nathan Zuckerman, who appeared in American Pastoral(1997) and I married a Communist(1998). The latter two are loosely considered to form a trilogy with The Human Stain. 

5) J.M Coetzee's Disgrace- Published in 1999, the book won the Booker and four years after its publication, Coetzee won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He roo is alive and currently living in Australia. 

So, this was my humble honourable mention. Now, i have provided you with useful links(highlighted in yellow) to supplement your reading. See you all in my next write-up. Keep reading till then.