Introduction
In recent times Indian English Novel has acquired a position at the top rung among all the forms of literature. It stands at par with its counter parts written in the English-speaking countries. The international literary awards like the Booker, The Pulitzer, The Sinclair won by Indian novelists exemplify that they have been appreciated even by the Western critics. Indian English Fiction has grown rich with the proliferation of various sub-genres.
Campus novel is also one such sub-genre which has enriched Indian English fiction. In recent times considerable progress has been attained in India in the field of campus novels. But as they have not been sufficiently explored, an endeavor has been made in the present paper to carry out a survey of the campus novels in India. The paper attempts to throw light on the various focal points in Indian campus novels and provides examples for each type.
Origin of Campus Novel and its Growth in the West
Chris Baldick in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms gives this definition for campus novel:
Campus novel is a novel, usually comic or satirical, in which the action is set within enclosed world of university (or similar set of learning) and highlights the follies of academic life. Many novels had presented nostalgic evocations of college days, but the campus novel in the usual modern sense dated from the 1950s: Mary McCarthy’s The Groves of Academe (1952) and Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954) began significant tradition in modern fiction including John Barth’s Giles Goat-Boy (1966), David Lodge’s Changing Places (1975) and Robert Davis’s The Rebel Angels (1982).
According to David Lodge, a practitioner of this sub-genre, “In English ‘Campus Novel’ is a term used to designate a work of fiction whose action takes place mainly in a college or university, and which is mainly concerned with the lives of university professors and junior teachers — ‘faculty’ as they are collectively known in America, ‘dons’ or ‘academic staff’ in England.”
The word ‘Campus’ was first adopted to describe a particular urban space at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) during the early decades of the eighteenth century. The Latin term ‘Campus’ which means ‘field’ is applied to the physical space occupied by a college or university. It entered British English only in the late 1950s.
Seen in this light, the first English campus novel Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim, cannot be considered a campus novel because it was published in 1954, when the word ‘Campus’ was not popular in British English. The earliest quotation of the phrase ‘Campus Novel’ occurs in the Oxford English Dictionary only in 1968 but by then it was a familiar phrase.
An alternative name for the campus novel is “Academic Novel.” Most critics feel that the phrase ‘Academic Novel’ is perhaps more inclusive, but ‘campus novel’ is more expressive of the unity of place which characterizes the genre. The campus novels, by and large satirize professional stereotypes and malpractices in educational organizations. They convey the pain of intellectuals, comment on contemporary issues and even discuss the educational trends.
After the yeoman service of C.P. Snow’s The Masters (1951), many British Campus novels like Sir Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954), Angus Wilson’s Anglo-Saxon Attitudes (1956), Sir Malcolm Bradbury’s Eating People is Wrong (1959), Prof. David Lodge’s Changing Places (1975), Small World (1984) and Nice Work (1988) have also enormously contributed for the development and popularity of campus novels.
About the rise of Academic novel, Elaine Showalter writes, “One theory argues that it developed because readers like to read about their own world and indeed about themselves.” The emergence and growth of campus novels in America and Britain were almost simultaneous and curiously independent.
The first reason is sociological — in the period after the Second World War there was a great expansion in university education. Another reason is that the university or college provides a world ready-made — a small world which is a kind of microcosm of the larger world.
Elaine Showalter points out that the campus novel which mainly concerns the teaching fraternity is called “Professorromane.” The development of campus novels has led to its offshoots like the Varsity novels which focus on the students and not on the faculty.
Development of Campus Novels in India
Though the campus novel is considered as an Anglo-American genre, its practitioners in India are found in abundance. It indeed had a slow beginning in India. The first Indian Campus Novel — The Long Long Days by P.M. Nityanandan was published in 1960 and then there was a long gap of eleven years before the second campus novel The Farewell Party by M.V. Rama Sarma was published in 1971. After this K.M. Trisanku’s Onion Peel was published in 1973 and Saros Cowasjee’s Goodbye to Elsa in 1974. Then Prema Nandakumar’s Atom and the Serpent, which is considered by critics as campus novel proper appeared in 1982.
A survey of the campus novels in India reveals that they can be grouped into various categories: 1) Campus novels focused on Students, 2) Campus novels focused on Faculty, 3) Campus novels focused on Vice Chancellor, 4) Campus novels focused on all the malfunctioning of the campus, 5) Bildungsroman.
In the first category, novels like The Long Long Days and The Truth (Almost) About Bharat can be considered. Here the campus life of students as seen by students themselves is portrayed.
In the second category, novels like The Awakening, Corridors of Knowledge, and The Farewell Party can be enlisted. Here the protagonist would be a lecturer or a professor confronted with corrupt aspects of the college or university.
The third category of campus novels is focused on the Vice Chancellor. Novels like Campus, Atom and the Serpent, and Miracles Happen can be grouped under this category.
The malfunctioning in the campus forms the focus of the next category. The Farewell Party, The Drunk Tantra, Corridors of Knowledge, Miracles Happen, and Atom and the Serpent are some of the novels which can be enumerated here.
The last category includes novels like The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta, Goodbye to Elsa, The Narrator, and Corridors of Knowledge. These novels concentrate on the growth of the character of the protagonist.
Conclusion
In the present scenario, many Indian novelists are getting fascinated by campus novels and are contributing to this sub-genre, with a lot of experimentations and variations. These variations contribute not only in increasing the varieties of campus novels but also in rectifying the follies of the people related to the campus. It would not be a surprise if campus novel emerges as one of the principal sub-genres in India in the near future.
Works Cited
- Chris Baldick, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990. 30.
- Elaine Showalter, Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and its Discontents. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Steven Connor, The English Novel in History 1950-1995. London: Routledge, 1996. 69.
- M.G. Hegde, “Power of the Glory: A Thematic Analysis of Prema Nandakumar’s Atom and the Serpent.” Indian Women Novelists, Set III: Vol.2, Ed. R.K. Dhawan. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1995. 228.
- P.M. Nityanandan, The Long Long Days. Madras: Orient Longman Ltd, 1960.
- Kavery Nambisan, The Truth (Almost) about Bharat. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1991.
- Rita Joshi, The Awakening — A novella in rhyme. New Delhi: UBS Publishers’ Distributors Ltd, 1993.
- M.K. Naik, Corridors of Knowledge. Gulbarga: Jiwe Publication, 2008.
- M.V. Rama Sarma, The Farewell Party. Hyderabad: Orient Academy, 1971.
- K.L. Kamal, Campus — A novel. Jaipur: University Book House, 2002.
- Prema Nandakumar, Atom and the Serpent. Madras: Affiliated East-West Press, 1982.
- D.R. Sharma, Miracles Happen. Calcutta: A Writers Workshop Book, 1985.
- Ranga Rao, The Drunk Tantra. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1994.
- Anuradha Marwah Roy, The Higher Education of Geetika Mehendiratta. New Delhi: Orient Longman Ltd, 1993.
- Saros Cowasjee, Goodbye to Elsa. Toronto: New Press, 1974.
- Makarand Paranjape, The Narrator — A Novel. New Delhi: Rupa and Co., 1995.