Cultural Intermediation and the Civil Sphere. A Cultural Sociology of Literary Production

• Applicant: Dr. Marcel Knöchelmann
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 514187809

Literature has a critical function for democratic society. In times of civil unrest—during movements such as Black Lives Matter or #metoo—the culture structure of the civil sphere is both drawn on and under invasive constraint. Authors provide narratives so that others are given the hermeneutic devices for understanding, empathy, or developing solidarity. They contribute to civil repair; but they require readership for so doing. Readership is crucially dependent on cultural intermediaries; they enable readership. Cultural intermediaries are those actors in between authors and potential readers: agents, editors, critics, or members of jury boards of literary prizes. They co-produce literature, making it materially manifest and publicly visible. Particularly in times of civil unrest, these actors have to position themselves towards the civil sphere: do they pitch, publish, or review the critical novel or do they neglect doing so in favour of less critical, potentially commercially more promising work? This moral factor in the decision-making of cultural intermediaries is not well understood. I propose to investigate this by employing Jeffrey Alexander’s civil sphere theory and empirically studying cultural intermediation in the US publishing industry, using a series of qualitative interviews. This will elucidate the moral factor of cultural intermediation. Public discourses of civil repair both question and foster civil solidarity; in the US, they are signified by deepening chasms, which makes this study particularly pertinent. If we subscribe to literature playing a vital role for democratic society, we need to better understand the reasonings and justifications of its production—particularly those in the shadows of commercial interests and power.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Philip Smith