Clara Brownstein L&S Arts & Humanities
University Fictions: The Campus Novel Under Late Capitalism
Often regarded as nostalgic and utopian, the campus novel has recently undergone something of a makeover. In the past two decades, as the university has seen massive changes in funding and purpose, campus novels both reflect and resist this transformation. My planned thesis focuses on the ways several contemporary narratives of undergraduate experience—Elif Batuman’s The Idiot and Either/Or, Jeffrey Eugenides’ The Marriage Plot, and Hua Hsu’s memoir Stay True—portray the tension between their protagonists’ deep desire to learn and the material realities of the university that prevent them from doing so. Pushing against the model of university as a job training program, these texts depict characters filtering their lives through their education, voraciously consuming and bonding over philosophical and literary texts. In a world where university is increasingly viewed as a transaction, what does it mean to learn? By analyzing the texts’ rhetorical structures and language alongside research on the economics and sociology of education, I will explore the ways recent campus novels embed commentary on what education can be and how it is constrained by the conditions of late capitalism.
Message To Sponsor
I'm very greatful to my donor for their support in my research this summer — and for all funding given to undergraduate research at Berkeley. I look forward to utilizing this support to examine higher education and its rendering in literature, because I believe that by understanding art we can better understand the world around us. I can't thank the university and my donor enough for allowing me to study this topic.