It's a Small World, after All: Assessing the Contemporary Campus Novel

"We are trained to be cynical" : Arthur Koestler's The Call-Girls as a campus novel

“…The majority -later on to be referred to as the Nikosians -thought what a clever bastard Solovief was to invite the most extreme, rigid and orthodox representative of a school of thought to which he was known to be passionately opposed. 57To sum up, Arthur Koestler's The Call-Girls visibly features all the characteristics of an academic novel, as identified by Robert F. Scott (2004) and Jeffrey J. Williams (2012): it is full of "colorful, often neurotic personalities" (Scott 2004: 82), "sexual adventures of all types" (82), "ideological rivalries" (82), spiced with the characters' midlife crises and struggle with "adult predicaments in marriage" (Williams 2012: 562).…”

“…While this definition is admittedly ill-fitting for Koestler's text, since the story does not take place at a college, but at a conference center, and the students are completely missing as well, this should not be an insurmountable problem. As Robert F. Scott (2004) explains, "the academic novel is a vital and aesthetically rich literary genre that has continually evolved in order to meet the demands of its large and ever-expanding readership" (82). In other words, the genre is neither rigid, nor unchanging, and the switching of focus from the university campus to the academic conference fits into its general development.…”

“…Turning now to the issue of the lack of students, their presence or absence is also not as central to the genre, as one would think. As Robert F. Scott (2004) explains, regardless of a general belief to the contrary, "students do not often figure prominently in academic novels" (84). In fact, on the basis of his extensive research of such novels published at or around the millennium, he goes as far as to suggest the following:…”

“…Beyond those mentioned by Williams (2012), Robert F. Scott (2004) adds a set of further features that are typical of academic novels. His text emphasizes "the colorful, often neurotic personalities who inhabit academia" (82), as well as the omnipresence of "ideological rivalries which thrive in campus communities" (82) and finishes the list with the mentioning of "sexual adventures of all types" (82).…”

“…Finally, with all his real political influence, scientific stature, achievements and knowledge, he is a character who is "difficult to take seriously" (88). And while it would be easy to continue the list of such characters beyond Nikolai Solovief, Otto von Halder and Bruno Kaletski, these three examples suffice to show that the novel indeed features what Robert F. Scott (2004) calls "the colorful, often neurotic personalities who inhabit academia" (82).…”