thesis
Classification into the Literary Mainstream? Ethnic Boundaries in the Literary Fields of the United States, the Netherlands and Germany, 1955-2005
- Publication date
- 3 December 2009
- Publisher
- As a result of mass migration, the ethnic composition of western
countries has become increasingly diverse. Both inside and outside
academia, this development has led to heated discussions about
whether ethnic minorities are - or even have to be - assimilated into
mainstream society.
In Assimilation into the Literary Mainstream, Pauwke Berkers
addresses how literary critics, policy makers and textbook editors
have dealt with ethnic diversity in the United States, the Netherlands
and Germany between 1955 and 2005.
How much newspaper coverage has been devoted to ethnic minority
authors and how has this changed over time? And to what extent do
reviewers discuss the ethnic background of such writers? Moreover,
have national literary policy organizations actively stimulated or
largely ignored ethnic diversity? Finally, to what degree are ethnic
minority authors canonized in national literary histories?
Examining the use of ethnic discourse, the numerical representation
and the labels used to describe ethnic minority authors, the author
demonstrates that ethnic boundaries are relatively weak, moderately
strong and strong in the literary fields of the U.S., the Netherlands
and Germany respectively.
At a macro-level, these cross-national differences are related to
different national repertoires of evaluation. However, within national
literary fields, ethnic classifications differ, depending on the structural
position that different literary institutions hold vis-à-vis the economic and political field.