Academics and their culture(s) and rituals
So, how they keep score – books, journal articles in peer-reviewed journals, keynote speeches etc. Yes, “the game’s the game,” but w hat is IN the game/what are the rules, that shifts…
NB, all these are by white men. And, more seriously, about the academic world that existed in the 1970s and 1980s. It’s gotten a bit more precarious since then…
Other suggestions welcome!! (See bottom)
David Lodge
Nice Work
Changing Places
Small World
Frank Moorhouse
Conference-ville
Kingsley Amis
Lucky Jim
CP Snow
The Affair
Michael Frayn
The Tin Men (More about a research institution, but still great)
Robert Parker
The Godwulf Manuscript
Gilbert Adair
The Death of the Author (stuff on deconstruction etc. See also The Key to the Tower)
See also wikipedia on “The Campus Novel”
To read
AS Byatt
Possession.
Wallace Stenger
Crossing to Safety
Vladimir Nabokov
Pnin
James Robertson
The Professor of Truth (recommended to me – I haven’t read it)
marchudson.net 
Hi Marc
Enjoying your interviews with Kevin Anderson … 🙂
Here’s one for you …
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/stoner-john-williams-julian-barnes
cheers
Dave
dave.moreman@staffs.ac.uk
Hi Marc
Enjoying your interviews with Kevin Anderson on Youtube. 🙂
Try this!
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/13/stoner-john-williams-julian-barnes
regards
Dave
Most of the academic novels I have read are satires, parodies of dysfunctional places with marginally functional professors. I have just written a novel about a world-class professor at a first-class technical university run by smart, competent people, where things can still go badly wrong. It’s entitled “One Man’s Purpose” and will come out from Friesen Press in the Fall of 2015. In the meantime, I invite you to visit (and contribute to) my blog on “Education as Conversation” at http://www.sdsenturia.com.
I’ve never read it, but Jane Smiley’s sprawling campus novel Moo is supposedly good. I also second the previous commentator in recommending Stoner by John Williams. It is so beautiful. Truly an American and academic classic.