“University Novel” (Campus Novel / University Fiction): Genesis and Current Parameters of the Genre

Abstract

The theoretical paradigm of the genre in the aspect of genesis is considered on the example of the genre variety of the novel, which today is identified as the university novel (campus novel, university fiction). The matrix genre-creating features of the university novel are singled out: problematics, specifics of the plot and personosphere, time-space, ironic narrative, author’s idiostyle. The internal species formations of the campus novel genre are determined by the specific issues and genre specifics of the plot organization – the youth environment, the professor-teaching component of the personosphere, as well as detective, fantastic, etc. the nature of the intrigue. Under the influence of the stylistic practice of a specific direction (for example, realism or postmodernism), the university novel demonstrates the so-called genre metamorphism. The genesis of the genre is traced in the context of its form-content national specificity. On the example of modern campus novels by Ph. Roth “The Human Mark”, Z. Smith “About Beauty”, J. Aldecoa “The Riddle”, A. Orehudo “A moment of rest”, V. Shostak “One Hundred Days Without a Sun”, V. Kalyta “Arkharotsi”, Halyna Babych “Tyuti” and “Professor Shumeiko”, D. Berezina “Faculty” it is concluded that it is the plot that generates and preserves the genre potential of the university novel. The prospects for the functioning of this genre are indicated the appearance of its new fantastic and detective story versions, derived from the total impact of the latest technologies on society (the emergence of new diseases and adaptation to them, the threat of environmental disasters, etc.). Attention is focused on the distinct cultural transgression of the thematic multivariate genre core of the campus novel into such modern art forms as manga, comics, and movies. Taking into account the concept of the genre spiral of N. Kopystyanska, a conclusion is made regarding the genetic evolution of the student novel. Terminologically concretized as an independent genre in the age of postmodernism, this genre is distinguished by the author’s idiostyle and raises social and political problems of a certain country, without losing the established features of the novel. The direct impact of metamodernism on the university novel is predicted, which will generate its deformation and a new cultural format based on the genre-creating potential of the topic.