“We are trained to be cynical”: Arthur Koestler’s the call-Girls as a campus novel
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Date
2018
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Abstract
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.
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conferences, fiction, academic novel, campus novel, Arthur Koestler