Abstract
Becoming a PhD is not an easy task. It is therefore unsurprising that we are more likely to read self-help books on successful doctoral writing, well-being, sociological or psychological research of doctoral study, the influence of the supervisor, and the relevance and applicability of research to the labour market. However, there is a notable absence of thorough studies on how PhD students view themselves, the obstacles they face, and how they reflect different issues in literary works, or how this differs from their cultural image. For these reasons I use the campus novel genre analysis and a modernised version of it in Frances Kelly’s research (2009, 2012, 2017) to examine and compare two novels – “Pond Life” by Jack R. Williams (2023) and “when i was a malalietka” by Virginija Kulvinskaite (2019). I analyse the liminal identity of the PhD student and the aspects that define it: writing as a central part of the dissertation and the satiricism and irony it conveys, as well as becoming an adult and a (non-)choice of an academic life, and finally the images of academic travel and conferences. I show the representations, critiques and societal imaginaries of a diverse academic life in contemporary fiction, as well as the vitality of the campus novel from the perspectives of classic Anglo-American and “peripheral” Lithuanian literature.
Presenters
Karolina BagdoneJunior Research Fellow, Contemporary Literature, The Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Vilnius, Lithuania
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
PhD, Campus Novel, Identity, Lithuanian, British, American
