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by giraffe_lady 286 days ago
I don't think it fits in the genre particularly? Been a while since I read it though.

The bigger omission is Byatt's Possession, predating The Secret History by a couple years and I think possibly being the type specimen of what is now called dark academia.
3 comments
AlotOfReading 286 days ago
The list doesn't have to be exhaustive. It also misses the vita nostra series, which is interesting as an example of the same subgenre occurring outside the anglosphere.

The Secret History is generally regarded as the prototype for the modern subgenre though.

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giraffe_lady 286 days ago
No of course it isn't exhaustive I wouldn't want or expect that from this kind of article.

> The Secret History is generally regarded as the prototype for the modern subgenre though.

Well, but that's why I mentioned possession. I know the secret history is considered the original dark academia, but possession predates it, is retrospectively just as firmly within this genre as it is understood now, and while not as famous is probably as influential on authors within it. It's a striking omission in an overview of the history of the genre.

Vita Nostra definitely fits the genre descriptively but I think it's more connected to a russian fantasy/slavic magical realism tradition that there isn't really a name for and that we only get a little bit of translated decades later. To me it shares a lot more with like mariam petrosyan and sergei lukyanenko than it does donna tartt.

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defrost 286 days ago
Tangentially - it's an absurdist character rich fantasy bound by a 70 generations old castle (or university? Well, no, but shade is thrown).

Not a clean fit to Dark Academia, but a lesser known and worthy forerunner.

Also, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Stephen Fry, and many others in the 2000 TV adaption is good entertainment for anyone with a DA bent. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsPC8m4zo9g

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libraryofbabel 286 days ago
Oh that’s interesting - I’d never thought of Possession as being dark academia. But you’re right, it is. It’s certainly one of my favorite novels, on another level than The Secret History which I also enjoyed. Every time I re-read it I am impressed all over again by how it’s woven together and, not least, how Byatt managed to write all the poems herself.
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