“Dark academia.” You may have seen this phrase being used by bookish influencers on TikTok or tagged onto writers’ mood boards on Twitter and Instagram. The phrase is generally accompanied by images in muted earthy tones and dark burgundy, often featuring cardigans with elbow patches and pleated skirts, dark wood furniture, hallowed halls of learning, and libraries full of cloth-bound tomes. Though the term has only come into popular use in recent years, perusing an image search is enough to quickly give you a sense of the vibe—a cohesive aesthetic that encompasses fashion, architecture, and personal paraphernalia. But is there something more to dark academia than just visually appealing imagery with which to decorate one’s social media presence?
Wikipedia defines dark academia as “a social media aesthetic and subculture concerned with higher education, writing/poetry, the arts, and classic Greek and Gothic architecture.” As the name suggests, academia is at the heart of this concept, particularly the Western world’s most prestigious institutions, such as Oxford, Cambridge, and America’s Ivy League schools, as well as the prep schools that feed into them. More specifically, though, the form of academia generally explored here is the type of liberal arts education that the literary greats of the last few centuries would have experienced, with a focus on literature, philosophy, and Classical studies. The trend has been criticized for glamorizing these institutions—which have so often been used as tools of privilege and oppression—and for aspiring to imitate a particular upper-class European lifestyle that poor or marginalized members of society would have been excluded from. But dark academia can also be used to criticize or reimagine such institutions and lifestyles. And while that type of nuance may not always come through in an Instagram post, you can see it in much of the writing that has come out of dark academia. Because, apart from being an aesthetic and perhaps even a lifestyle or subculture, dark academia is a budding genre of literature. It usually features stories set within an academic institution, and the “dark” element comes through in a mystery, thriller, or horror plot. Below are just a few examples of books that could be considered dark academia:
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Tartt’s 1992 debut novel is often credited with being the foundation of this literary movement. It draws on the older tradition of the “campus novel”—a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university. The Secret History is set within a fictional elite liberal arts college in Vermont called Hampden College, inspired by Tartt’s own alma mater. The story centers on six Classics students and the murder that sours their friendship and splinters the group.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
This first book in Harkness’s All Souls trilogy came out in 2011, and I reviewed it back in 2015. A paranormal romance story between a witch and a vampire, it leaves behind the high school setting typical of YA novels in this genre and takes place instead at Oxford, with much of action occurring within Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Diana Bishop is a young scholar, determined to take a purely academic approach to alchemy rather than actually practicing the powerful magic her deceased parents were known for. But when she unearths a magical text from the bowels of the Bodleian, she draws the attention of vampire and science professor Matthew Clairmont.
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
Reading and reviewing Ninth House last year was what first brought dark academia to my attention. In this novel, Bardugo takes a fantastical approach to the very real secret societies at Yale University. High school drop-out Alex Stern is granted a free ride to Yale in exchange for using her ability to see ghosts to aid Lethe House, the secret organization tasked with preventing the occult practices of Yale’s other societies from getting out of hand. Reining in the rich and powerful is hard enough—even more so when they’ve been given supernatural powers to play with. But when Alex’s mentor goes missing and a girl is murdered on campus, Alex realizes she may be the only one who can uncover the true darkness at the heart of one of America’s most treasured institutions.
The World Cannot Give by Tara Isabella Burton
I haven’t read this one yet, but it’s high on my list after I devoured Burton’s Social Creature. The World Cannot Give takes place at an elite boarding school in Maine, where a young student filled with idealistic yearning finds herself drawn into a cultish choir group. Laura Stearns is obsessed with a Byronic literary figure named Sebastian Weber and longs to experience the kind of passion that drove his writing and his life. She thinks she may have found the key to that passion in Virginia Strauss, the charismatic leader of the school’s chapel choir. But when Virginia’s power over her devoted followers is threatened, things take a dark turn.…
What do you think of dark academia? Have you read anything that fits this description? Let me know in the comments!
I read The Secret History recently and didn’t realize it was the foundation of the dark academia movement! Someone recommended it to me long ago. I don’t often venture into horror/murder mystery but I thought it was beautifully written. I might consider more of the same genre.
I have read M. R. James and some others from that period. I will try some of these also.