The school story is a fiction genre centring on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, at its most popular in the first half of the twentieth century. While examples do exist in other countries, it is most commonly set in English boarding schools and mostly written in girls' and boys' subgenres, reflecting the single-sex education typical until the 1950s. It focuses largely on friendship, honour and loyalty between pupils. Plots involving sports events, bullies, secrets, rivalry and bravery are often used to shape the school story.
Facts
Place of OriginEngland; Sarah Fielding's The Governess, or The Little Female Academy (1749) is generally seen as the first boarding school story. 1 Notable ExampleTom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes (1857) is regarded as the most famous work in the genre and helped firmly establish it. 1 Defining TraitCenters on friendship, honour and loyalty among pupils at a boarding or day school, with plots often built on sports events, bullies, secrets, rivalry and bravery. 1 FAQs
What happened to the school story after the Second World War?
The traditional school story declined after 1945 but continued in modern forms and revived with Harry Potter.
The popularity of the traditional school story declined after the Second World War, but school stories stayed popular in other forms. These later stories tend to focus on state run coeducational schools and on more modern concerns such as racial issues, family life, sexuality and drugs. The genre has more recently seen a revival with the success of the Harry Potter series, which uses many plot motifs found in the traditional school story.
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Source School Story (Wikipedia)tier 2
Sources
1. School Story (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)s.v. School Story, lede
The school story is a fiction genre centring on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, at its most popular in the first half of the twentieth century.
s.v. School Story, Hughes and successors
close to 100 school stories had been published between 1749 and 1857, the year that Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes appeared. It is perhaps the most famous of all such tales, and its popularity helped firmly establish the genre.
s.v. School Story, lede (friendship, honour and loyalty)
It focuses largely on friendship, honour and loyalty between pupils.
s.v. School Story, lede (Fielding, 1749)
The Governess, or The Little Female Academy by Sarah Fielding, published in 1749, is generally seen as the first boarding school story.
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