The University of Okoboji is a fictitious university in the state of Iowa in the United States. The university was the creation of three brothers (The Three Sons) in the early 1970s, who printed t-shirts with an "official" school crest. The word "Okoboji" refers to several lakes, and to the town of Okoboji, in the Iowa Great Lakes region that are popular recreational destinations.
It is common among those claiming to be alumni to display university decor, such as car decals and t-shirts without informing unsuspecting out-of-staters that the university is fictitious. The name is now used in connection with several annual fund-raising events for charity, including bike rides, a marathon, and a winter games competition. A local radio station, KUOO, has joined in the joke and refers to itself as the "campus radio".
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“It is in the nature of allegory, as opposed to symbolism, to beg the question of absolute reality. The allegorist avails himself of a formal correspondence between “ideas” and “things,” both of which he assumes as given; he need not inquire whether either sphere is “real” or whether, in the final analysis, reality consists in their interaction.”
—Charles, Jr. Feidelson, U.S. educator, critic. Symbolism and American Literature, ch. 1, University of Chicago Press (1953)
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—Albert Borgman, U.S. educator, author. Crossing the Postmodern Divide, ch. 4, University of Chicago Press (1992)