Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Tommek, Heribert

Titel

A Middle-brow literature. Contemporary German literature between niche markets and mass production

Ist Teil von

• Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales, 2015-03 (206-207), p.100-107

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Quelle

Sociological Abstracts

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Like the field of cultural production in general, the German literary field has underwent major transformations since the 1960s. The interactions between the subfield of niche production and the subfield of mass production have become frequent. This article thus analyzes this intermediary space, in which esthetic values internal to the field, entertainment functions and criteria of economic success are hybridized. Using the German literary field and its evolution since the 1990s, it foregrounds a new dynamic defined by a horizontal logic blending cultural capital and economic capital. In order to do so, it introduces the concept of 'middle-brow literature,' patterned after the concept of 'middle-brow art' defined by Pierre Bourdieu. It is indeed possible to see parallels between photography in the 1960s and contemporary literature, as the latter also oscillates between form and function. Its capacity for transmission and reproduction differentiate it from high-brow art, while it remains also distinct from popular culture. Adapted from the source document.