Title: "We are trained to be cynical" : Arthur Koestler's The Call-Girls as a campus novel
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2018, vol. 44, iss. 2, pp. [157]-175
Extent
[157]-175
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2018-2-10
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/140983
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Arthur Koestler's The Call-Girls (1972) is, at present, mostly ignored, or if discussed, either dismissed wholesale, or approached only in terms of its role in the development of Koestler's political and philosophical thinking. The aim of this analysis is to show that it is possible to interpret the text as a highly specific campus novel, limited to a single setting: an academic conference. Although the conference's topic is "saving the world," the novel's characters neither achieve that aim, nor get any closer to a solution. Therefore, the book can be taken for a satirical treatment of the hypocrisy and futility of academic conferences, rather than a political plea, as previously understood.
References
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[2] Avishai, Bernard (2003) Arthur Koestler: The consolations of communism. Partisan Review 70 (2), 228–244.
[3] Bellow, Saul (1964) Herzog. New York: Viking.
[4] Bradbury, Malcolm (1987) Cuts. London: Hutchinson.
[5] Brady, Charles A. (1946) Bren guns in the Holy Land. America, November 30, 243–244.
[6] Buckard, Christian (2004) Arthur Koestler: Ein extremes Leben 1905–1983. Munich: C. H. Beck.
[7] Calder, Jenni (1968) Chronicles of Conscience: A Study of George Orwell and Arthur Koestler. London: Secker & Warburg.
[8] Cesarani, David (1998) Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind. London: William Heinemann.
[9] Hamilton, Iain (1982) Koestler: A Biography. London: Secker & Warburg.
[10] Koestler, Arthur (1939) The Gladiators. London: Jonathan Cape.
[11] Koestler, Arthur (1943) Arrival and Departure. New York: Macmillan.
[12] Koestler, Arthur (1946) Thieves in the Night. New York: Macmillan.
[13] Koestler, Arthur (1951) The Age of Longing. New York: Macmillan.
[14] Koestler, Arthur (1971) The Case of the Midwife Toad. London: Hutchinson.
[15] Koestler, Arthur ([1972] 1976) The Call-Girls: A Tragi-Comedy with Prologue and Epilogue. London: Pan Books.
[16] Koestler, Arthur (1972) The Roots of Coincidence. London: Hutchinson.
[17] Kramer, John E. (1981) The American College Novel: An Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland.
[18] Levene, Mark (1985) Arthur Koestler. London: Oswald Wolff.
[19] Lodge, David (1984) Small World: An Academic Romance. London: Secker & Warburg.
[20] Márton, László (2006) Koestler, a lázadó. Budapest: Pallas.
[21] Mays, Wolfe (1973) Arthur Koestler. Guildford: Lutterworth Press.
[22] Mews, Siegfried (1989) The professor's novel: David Lodge's Small World. Modern Language Notes 104 (3), 713–726.
[23] Miller, Emanuel (1951) Koestler's satire. Jewish Chronicle, May 4, 12.
[24] Pace, Eric (1983) Arthur Koestler and wife suicides in London. The New York Times, March 4, 1, 20.
[25] Petraşcu, Mirela (2015) Local and global impact zones in the campus novel: Showcasing Malcolm Bradbury's Cuts. Transilvania 2015 (5), 62–70.
[26] Phillips, William (1944) Koestler and the political novel. Nation, August 26, 241–242.
[27] Pinsker, Sanford (1999) Who cares if Roger Ackroyd gets tenure? Partisan Review 66 (3), 439–452.
[28] Sage, Lorna (1972) Mental models. Times Literary Supplement, October 27, 1274.
[29] Scammell, Michael (2009) Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth Century Skeptic. New York: Random House.
[30] Scott, Robert F. (2004) It's a small world, after all: Assessing the contemporary campus novel. Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 37 (1), 81–87. | DOI 10.2307/1315380
[31] Šečerović, Naser (2009) Koestlers Die Herren Call-Girls. In: Weigel, Robert G. (ed.) Arthur Koestler: Ein heller Geinst in dunkler Zeit. Tübingen: Francke, 91–104.
[32] Sperber, Murray A. (1977) Arthur Koestler: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
[33] Steen, Kirk (2005) Arthur Koestler's Hope in the Unseen: Twentieth-Century Efforts to Retrieve the Spirit of Liberalism. PhD dissertation, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.
[34] Szívós, Mihály (2006) Koestler Arthur: Tanulmányok és esszék. Budapest: Typotex.
[35] The Koestler Archive. Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library.
[36] Virginia Quarterly Review (1973) Notes on current books. Virginia Quarterly Review 49 (3), civ–cxxvi.
[37] Williams, Jeffrey J. (2012) The rise of the academic novel. American Literary History 24 (3), 561–589. | DOI 10.1093/alh/ajs038