Exploring Knowledge Spaces a Study of Selected Campus Narratives

Abstract

The research aims at studying the Campus Narratives as a knowledge space, where there is a constant dilemma between two disparate worlds. One deals with the want and wish to attain power within this closed world and its relation to the outside world, whereas, the other world is entangled in the pull between correctness, idealism and competitiveness. Universities are considered as a terrain from where ideologies take birth, novel ideas and perspectives are introduced to the outside world, and also as a reliable source of knowledge because of its elevated status before the outside world. This study has been on the premise that literature, because of its absolute nature, implicitly or explicitly presents before us the prevalent conditions of a particular domain and hints towards its future course of action. newlineThese campus narratives are an honest as well as a candid reflection of the distressful and the ludicrous milieu of the university life; the colourful as well as the diffident characters who inhabit this space of academia; and the rivalries which prevail in this sphere ideological rivalries, the will to power, and the web of desire and duty. They are the representation of the academic follies, the dereliction in the duties and the anomalies of the academic world. Most of these works which appear comical at the surface possess concealed feelings of anger and despair, which have the tendency to belittle academic life. Since they are the epitome of highly ritualized conduct, it is often crumbled inside. newlineAnother idea, which these narratives explore, is the post effects of commercialization of the higher education sector. The decadence which has penetrated in this milieu, and how the and#8213;true knowledgeand#8214; has been destroyed with overt dependence on information and technology, has been substantially discussed by the narrators. The conversion of mentor student relationship to producer consumer equation, replacement of knowledge with facts, and awareness with percentile hints towards the hollowness we are approaching...