L’università senza vita

Studenti-lavoratori e dottorandi nei racconti italiani, 1990-2020

Abstract

This contribution analyses the literary representations of working students and PhD candidates in a selection of Italian short stories published between the mid-1990s and the late 2010s. More specifically, this analysis examines texts in which these two figures appear as workers. The goal of the first part is to point out how literature reverses the stereotypical image given by the political leadership of the university students; the second part shows that the power relations between university professors and students are still the same – with a strong imbalance in favor of the formers –, despite the neoliberal, business-oriented model of university argues otherwise.