I'm also not immune to the sad grad lit, but I do grapple with an intense sense of survivor's guilt. Like I succeded where other people are struggling - not because of any particular virtue but because of good luck and timing. My cries of "academia is broken" seem to have less credibility as I've been gainfully employed in my field since graduation.
My antidote to sad grad lit is the terrible/wonderful David Lodge Campus Trilogy. They are absurd and satirical and well worth reading en route to a conference.
Congrats on finishing your Ph.D.! And on landing a tenure-line position. I hope it lives up to your expectations. I wrote about a similar trend for The Chronicle recently: see "The Big Quit" (https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-big-quit). And I suppose today's Substack post "Why Study Literature" (https://joshuadolezal.substack.com/p/why-study-literature?s=w) might qualify as a form of Sad Grad Lit. Though I think some of these stories can be ultimately empowering, if people find work that either rewards their expertise more fairly or allows them enough work/life balance to feel like a healthy human being. I don't think my own story is ultimately a sad one, even if grieving is still part of it.
Thanks, Joshua! And you're absolutely right - "quit lit" is not inherently sad. For whatever reason, though, novelists tend to write more about forced or unexpected exits from academia than their happy counterparts...
I'm also not immune to the sad grad lit, but I do grapple with an intense sense of survivor's guilt. Like I succeded where other people are struggling - not because of any particular virtue but because of good luck and timing. My cries of "academia is broken" seem to have less credibility as I've been gainfully employed in my field since graduation.
My antidote to sad grad lit is the terrible/wonderful David Lodge Campus Trilogy. They are absurd and satirical and well worth reading en route to a conference.
Adding these to my list, Coree!!
Congrats on finishing your Ph.D.! And on landing a tenure-line position. I hope it lives up to your expectations. I wrote about a similar trend for The Chronicle recently: see "The Big Quit" (https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-big-quit). And I suppose today's Substack post "Why Study Literature" (https://joshuadolezal.substack.com/p/why-study-literature?s=w) might qualify as a form of Sad Grad Lit. Though I think some of these stories can be ultimately empowering, if people find work that either rewards their expertise more fairly or allows them enough work/life balance to feel like a healthy human being. I don't think my own story is ultimately a sad one, even if grieving is still part of it.
Thanks, Joshua! And you're absolutely right - "quit lit" is not inherently sad. For whatever reason, though, novelists tend to write more about forced or unexpected exits from academia than their happy counterparts...