The image of the professor in American academic fiction, 1980--1997

This dissertation, The Image of the Professor in American Academic Fiction, 1980--1997, affirms the idea that public perception of higher education is molded in ways other than scholarly research and examines the academic novel as one means by which the public has been made aware of academic life. Of particular significance to this study, however, is the manner in which college and university professors are portrayed in novels within the time period under discussion. In all, scholarship indicates that a single image of the university professor does not seem to exist in fiction, yet many common factors do suggest a limited degree of homogeneity among the characters. The focus of this study concerns the changing role of the professor in higher education, and, therefore, examines issues that have driven these changes. Such topics as the promotion and tenure process, the commitment to teaching, and the specific concerns of the female academic are examined through scholarly research and through parallel interpretations in the fiction. Fourteen novels are under discussion in this research: The Dean's December, Saul Bellow (1982); Mickelsson's Ghosts, John Gardner (1982); The Mind-Body Problem, Rebecca Goldstein (1983); Foreign Affairs, Alison Lurie (1984); Marya, A Life, Joyce Carol Oates (1986); The Socratic Method, Michael Levin (1987); Cantor's Dilemma, Carl Djerassi (1989); A Tenured Professor , John Kenneth Galbraith (1990); The Crown of Columbus, Louise and Michael Dorris (1991); Weinstock Among the Dying, Michael Blumenthal (1993); Japanese by Spring, Ishmael Reed (1993); Novemberfest, Theodore Weesner (1994); Moo , Jane Smiley (1995); Straight Man, Richard Russo (1997).