At first glance, the term “school story” seems easy to define: a school story is a story that takes place in a school. But historically and contemporarily, the meaning of neither “school” nor “story” is entirely clear. Does “school” refer narrowly to a boarding school, the setting of the best-known school stories, or more broadly to any educational institution, from the public day school to the small family school to the magical academy for witches and wizards? Must “story” refer to a printed text, or do films and television programmes set in schools count? Do school stories have to be fictional, or do memoirs of school life qualify? And what if only part of the story is set in a school, but we also see the pupils in other settings? Speaking of pupils, is the school…
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Citation: Speicher, Allison. "School Stories". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 February 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19730, accessed 26 November 2024.]
