Symbolic boundaries and struggles in the field of literary production in present-day Serbia : doctoral dissertation

[M. A. Resanović]

185 str.

Sociologija - Sociologija kulture / Sociology - Sociology of culture

The subject of this dissertation is the processes of production, maintenance, and transformation of symbolic boundaries in the literary field in contemporary Serbia. The main objective of the research is to identify, describe, and interpret various practices and discursive strategies used by writers and publishers when attempting to distinguish the literary field from other segments of the social space, as well as when evaluating other actors and themselves within the field. The research is inspired by Pierre Bourdieu's field theory, in which literary fields are viewed as relatively autonomous spaces where actors compete among themselves to gain literary prestige. Supplementary theoretical frameworks include the sociology of valuation and evaluation (SVE), as well as post-Bourdieuian approaches in the sociology of literature. Since the research focuses on differentiation strategies and symbolic struggles that are fundamentally discursive in nature, a qualitative research approach has been employed. The main source of data consists of semi-structured interviews conducted with writers and publishers, while auxiliary data sources encompass various types of documents (e.g. readership data, lists of award winners, annual production data, etc.) and newspaper articles. The presentation of research findings begins with a sketch of the publishing and bookselling landscape. Following that, the analysis is carried out to determine whether the field can be considered an autonomous domain today and what lines of division exist within it. The findings indicate the presence of beliefs concerning the importance of the field's relative autonomy, while also highlighting classification struggles within the field that may not significantly differ from those in the broader social space since drawing boundaries within the field is influenced by a range of non-literary criteria. Furthermore, the interpretation of the relationship between the national, regional, and global literary fields is also discussed.

Sociologija književnosti, književno polje, kulturna proizvodnja, Pjer Burdije, roman, evalutivne prakse, simboličke granice, simboločke borbe, autonomija

Sociology of literature, literary field, cultural production, Pierre Bourdieu, novel, evaluative practices, symbolic boundaries, symbolic struggles, autonomy

316.74:82(497.11)"20"(043.3)

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