Vagaries of (Academic) Identity in Contemporary Fiction

• Authors: Oksana Blashkiv
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Aim. The article attempts to look at question of academic identities through the prism the academic novel. This literary genre emerged in English and American literature in early 1950s and centers on the image of the professor. In Slavic literatures the genre of the academic novel appears roughly in early 1990s, which is directly connected with the change of the political order following the fall of the Berlin Wall and disbanding of the Soviet Union. Contemporary Ukrainian literature with its post-Soviet heritage presents a unique source for the study of academic discourse. Methods. An interdisciplinary approach which combines sociological investigation of academic identity (Henkel 2005) and hermeneutic literary analysis is used for this study. In this respect three novels from the contemporary Ukrainian literature – “University” (2007) and “Kaleidoscope” (2009) by Igor Yosypiv, and “Drosophila over a Volume of Kant” (2010) by Anatoliy Dnistrovyj – are chosen for analysis. Results. Analysis of the novels shows that the literary representation of academics’ lives goes in line with the sociological findings, which, in defining a successful academic, put a strong accent on a discipline and academic institution. The interpretation of Yosypiv’s novels about a Ukrainian nephrologist at the American Medical School suggests that protagonist’s academic success is rooted in the field of applied science as well as an American institution of higher education, while Dnistrovyj’s novel sees a failure of a philosophy professor in the crisis of the Humanities as survived in post-Soviet Ukraine. Conclusion. The given novels of Igor Yosypiv and Anatoliy Dnistrovyj show that in case of academic identity theme, the academic novels support sociological studies, i.e. the discipline (Applied Sciences and Humanities) as well as the university rank (American vs. post-Soviet) play a decisive role in scholars’ academic life. This in its turn proves that the academic novel, like in the time of its emergence in the 1950s, continues to be a literary chronicler of higher education.

Keywords

EN

academic identity; academic novel; Ukrainian literature; Igor Yosypiv; Anatoliy Dnistrovyj

• Publisher: Fundacja Pro Scientia Publica
• Journal: Journal of Education Culture and Society
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 151-160

Dates

published

2018-06-27

Contributors

author

Oksana Blashkiv

• Faculty of Humanities Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities Konarskiego 2, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland

References

• Andryczyk, M. (2012). The Intellectual as Hero in 1990s Ukrainian Fiction. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Archer, L. (2008). Younger Academics' Constructions of 'Authenticity', 'Success'and
• Professional Identity. Studies in Higher Education 33, 4, 385-403.
• Bauman, Z. (2011). Liquid Modern Changes to Education. Padova: Grafiche Nuova Jolly.
• Crownie, F. (2004). Legal Academics: Culture and Identities. Oxford and Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing.
• Dalton-Brown, Sally. (2008). Is There Life Outside of the Genre of the Campus Novel? Academic Struggles to Find a Place in Today’s World. The Journal of Popular Culture, 41, 4, 591-600.
• Dnistrovyj, Anatoliy. (2010). Дрозофiла над томом Канта [Drosophila Over the Volume of Kant]. L’viv: Піраміда.
• Donskis, L. (2009). Troubled Identity and the Modern World. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
• Gonçalves, K. (2013). Conversations of Intercultural Couples. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.
• Henkel, M. (2005). Academic Identity and Autonomy in a Changing Policy Environment. Higher Education 49, 1/2, 155-176.
• Hundorova T. (2016). Symptom of the Loser and the Melancholy of the Post-Soviet Generation. In: Schwartz M., Winkel H. (Eds.) Eastern European Youth Cultures in a Global Context (pp. 94-107). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
• Kwiek, M. (2006). The University and the State. A study into Global Transformations. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
• Moseley, M. (Ed.) (2007). The Academic Novel: New and Classic Essays. Chester Academic Press.
• Proctor, Mortimer R. (1957). The English University Novel. Berkeley and Los Angelos: University of California Press.
• Robbins, Bruce. (2006). What the Poster Saw: On the Academic Novel. In: James F. English (Ed.). A Concise Companion to Contemporary British Fiction (pp. 248-266). Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
• Rossen, J. (1993). The University in Modern Fiction: When Power is Academic. New York: St. Martin's. Press.
• Showalter, E. (2005). Faculty Towers. The Academic Novel and Its Discontents. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Snow, C.P. (1954). The Masters. Peguin.
• Williams, Jeffrey J. (2012). The Rise of the Academic Novel. American Literary History, 24, 3, 561-589.
• Womack K. (2005). Academic Satire: The Campus Novel in Context. In: Shaffer Brian W. (Ed.). A Companion to the British and Irish Novel 1945-2000 (pp. 326-339). Blackwell Publishing.
• Yosypiv, Ihor. (2007). Університет [University]. L’viv: Піраміда.
• Yosypiv, Ihor. (2009). Калейдоскоп [Kaleidoscope]. L’viv: Піраміда.

Identifiers

DOI

10.15503/jecs20181.151.160