The University as the Universe in Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15410%2F17%3A73599145" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15410/17:73599145 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The University as the Universe in Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding

Original language description

As before 1945, only a tiny percentage of the population had access to higher education, a novel set in a university only reflected a highly restricted class and gender privilege. In contrast, the postwar expansion of higher education in the anglophone world resulted in job openings at newly established universities and led to a new genre, the campus novel, or academic novel, whose focus was on professors rather than students. Currently, a new trend appears to be in progress in the United States, as the genre continues to flourish, but the distinction between the postwar professor-centered novels and the earlier student-centered ones no longer seems to apply. One of the major examples that illustrates this trend is Chad Harbach’s bestselling debut novel The Art of Fielding (2011), set in a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin. Although one of the major characters is Guert Affenlight, a former Harvard professor and current president of thecollege, the novel centers on Henry Skrimshander, a freshman and a gifted baseball player. While The Art of Fielding has been called a novel about baseball and college life, as Guert finds himself attracted to a mixed-race male student and Henry strives to do his best on the team and fit into a new environment, the issues raised in the text move far beyond this simple description. Thus, I argue that as the percentage of Americans with some experience of higher education is increasing, the college campus has become a convenient space for the fictional representation of the diversity of contemporary American society.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60206 - Specific literatures

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2017

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Moravian Journal of Literature and Film

ISSN

1803-7720

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

2017

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1-2

Country of publishing house

CZ - CZECH REPUBLIC

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

73-87

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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