Reading the Culture Wars in the New Academic Novel, 1984-Present Ian Butcher

Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 1-1-2017 Reading the Culture Wars in the New Academic Novel, 1984-Present Ian Butcher Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Butcher, I. (2017). Reading the Culture Wars in the New Academic Novel, 1984-Present (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/222 This One-year Embargo is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. READING THE CULTURE WARS IN THE NEW ACADEMIC NOVEL, 1984-PRESENT A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Ian Butcher December 2017 Copyright by Ian Butcher 2017 READING THE CULTURE WARS IN THE NEW ACADEMIC NOVEL, 1984-PRESENT By Ian Butcher Approved September 11, 2017 ________________________________ ________________________________ Greg Barnhisel Jeffrey J. Williams Professor of English Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, (Committee Chair) Carnegie Mellon University (Committee Member) ________________________________ Magali Cornier Michael Professor of English (Committee Member) ________________________________ ________________________________ James Swindal Greg Barnhisel Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate Chair, Department of English School of Liberal Arts Professor of English Professor of English iii ABSTRACT READING THE CULTURE WARS IN THE NEW ACADEMIC NOVEL, 1984-PRESENT By Ian Butcher December 2017 Dissertation supervised by Dr. Greg Barnhisel The “new academic novel” emerged in the 1980s as what had previously been a cloistered, insular genre began to engage much more directly with the social and political import of universities and the people who work in them. I argue that an important strand of this development centres on a group of novels that through their depiction of recent developments in academia—the threat of political correctness, the so-called theory wars, the growth of contingent labour, and the elevation of a corporate logic above educational concerns—document the emergence of neoliberalism as the dominant logic of American higher education and the American university’s transition away from its place within the post-WWII welfare state to the corporate university of today. Drawing out the connections between the university specific events (the collapse of the academic job market in the humanities, the casualization of academic labour, and the privatization of public higher education) that informed these developments and iv the broader systemic issues to which they are related, like the rise of the gig economy and the transition to post-Fordism, I read these novels as demonstrating the use of neoliberal policies to pursue a new form of higher education that would better serve the needs of a neoliberal state. Ultimately, I suggest that these novels’ registering of otherwise hidden bureaucratic aspects of the professorial experience in the corporate university can counter the nostalgic fantasies of the post-WWII university that perpetuate neoliberalism’s hold and offer a way to reimagine American higher education’s purpose and function. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This project would not have been possible without my exceptional committee of Drs. Greg Barnhisel, Jeff Williams, and Magali Michael, all of whom were beyond patient during what was a prolonged process. My dissertation is better for their careful reading and detailed feedback. In addition, I am thankful for colleagues whose questions, expertise, expressions of interest, and conversations in offices, hallways, and at parties helped me to sharpen my ideas and arguments: Jeff Stoyanoff, Rachel Luckenbill, Jade Higa, Emad Mirmotahari, Danielle St. Hillaire, Robin Sowards, Matthew Ussia, and Clint Benjamin, along with Heather Steffen and Jess Wiltern at Carnegie Mellon University and Chris Findeisen at the University of Illinois- Chicago. Finally, I am incredibly grateful for the support of my family over the course of this project. I am particularly appreciative of the indefatigable efforts of my wife, Shannon, to keep us both sane (mostly), healthy, and happy during this whole process. And to my daughter, Brynn, thank you for putting up with a dad who could be grouchy, distracted, and sleep-deprived. Hopefully now I’ll just be grouchy. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ………...iv Acknowledgement ............ ………………………………………………………….....................vi Introduction: Through a Novel, Darkly: Institutional History and the Academic Novel.. .......... viii Neoliberalism and the American University....................................................................... xvii A Brief Critical History of Academic Novels .................................................................... xxix Chapter 1: “After all, the whites are the real oppressed minority”: The Drama of Race and Sex in the PC Novel ................................................................................................................................... 1 A Brief History of PC, 1984-1995: Canon Wars, Culture Wars, and Neoliberalism ............. 9 PC Novels and the Drama of Race and Sex in Academe ..................................................... 23 Chapter 2: The Life and Death of Theory in the Academic Novel ............................................... 59 Triumph and Decline: Theory’s 1980s and 1990s ................................................................ 68 Growth Markets and the Triumph of Theory in Small World and White Noise ................... 83 Book and the Plot to Take Over the English Department ................................................... 104 Selling Shares in Theory in the Bear Market ...................................................................... 123 Chapter 3: After the Golden Age: The “Adminification” of the Academic Novel .................... 135 From Growth to Austerity: Foundations of Administrative Control in the Post- Golden Age University ....................................................................................................... 140 The Academic Devolution: Adminification in Moo and Straight Man .............................. 154 Chapter 4: Dwelling in the Ruins: Adjunct Novels and the Twilight of Higher Education .................................................................................................................................... 195 “Now he floated above the deep carpeting like a ghost”: The Lecturer’s Tale and the Figure of the Invisible Adjunct ........................................................................................... 207 “Three floors of office space in a half-vacant high rise”: Fight for Your Long Day and the New Landscape of Higher Education ..................................................................... 232 Conclusion: Academic Time, or How to Represent a New University ...................................... 260 Notes ........................................................................................................................................... 278 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 301 vii Introduction: Through a Novel, Darkly: Institutional History and the Academic Novel Everyone hates a sad professor. - R.E.M., “Sad Professor” In 2003, The Believer sent Gideon Lewis-Kraus to the 119th Modern Language Assocation (MLA) Convention in San Diego. At that point, the “journalist goes to MLA, makes fun of English professors” article was old hat, but Lewis-Kraus had no desire to slam academics as such, telling his “guide,” a professor from Arizona named Charlie, that he had “spent most of [his] life not criticizing academics, but romanticizing them” (Lewis-Kraus). Over the course of three days during which he navigates pretentious key note addresses, trendy cultural studies panels on reality television, cogent discussions of threats to academic freedom and their connection to US foreign policy, and anguished reports on the academic publishing market and university presses, Lewis-Kraus tries and fails to get the professors he encounters to confirm that they “are just dying to be relevant, but institutional wardens keep them chained up in dank library basements” (Lewis-Kraus). In his romanticized view, professors derive their relevance from their dedication to the life of the mind, as “being a professor meant being above the fray . [and] it was infinitely, unfathomably relevant” (Lewis-Kraus). Faced with a brief glimpse into their professional lives, though, and the air of looming disaster that hangs over the entire event, he realizes that this romantic conception is a luxury that not many professors can actually afford. As Charlie apologetically tells him, “‘[t]he days of spouse-swapping orgies and coke-snorting parties are long gone’” (Lewis-Kraus). Amidst ongoing budget cuts and the spectre of post-9/11 concerns about academic freedom in an age of jingoism, MLA proves less a gathering professors floating gloriously above the fray and more

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