"We are trained to be cynical" : Arthur Koestler's The Call-Girls as a campus novel

Title: "We are trained to be cynical" : Arthur Koestler's The Call-Girls as a campus novel
Author: Vernyik, Zénó
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2018, vol. 44, iss. 2, pp. [157]-175
Extent
[157]-175
  • ISSN
    0524-6881 (print)
    1805-0867 (online)
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.
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