Agency and Author

German Literature Beyond the Bestseller List

Author: Rachel J. Halverson and Benjamin D. Schaper Series: Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association

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PRODUCT INFORMATION

Description

The image of the solitary author devoting days and nights to writing endless bestselling novels remains an insidious and largely unchallenged myth within German culture. In this exacting examination of the German publishing industry, Agency and Author addresses the financial reality sometimes eclipsed by this idea. Focusing on lesser-known German-language writers and their interactions with the Literaturbetrieb (“literary scene”), Agency and Author explores the ways authors assert creative agency in an increasingly ‘eventized’ literary marketplace. Ranging from the impacts of literary awards to media hate campaigns, this volume spotlights how profoundly the German literary landscape and our understanding of authorship is transforming.

About the Author

Rachel J. Halverson is Professor of German and Director of the School of Global Studies at the University of Idaho. A specialist in post-war and post-unification German literature and culture, she has published research on the Historikerstreit, as well as the works of Siegfried Lenz, Jurek Becker, Günter de Bruyn, and Martina Hefter, among others. In addition to journal articles and book chapters, she has co-edited three anthologies: Textual Responses to German Unification (2001) and Berlin: The Symphony Continues (2004), with Carol Anne Costabile-Heming and Kristie Foell; and Taking Stock of German Studies in the United States: The New Millennium (2015), with Costabile-Heming.