Doppelrollen im Literaturbetrieb

Panel discussion with Johannes Franzen, Christiane Frohmann, and Lea Schneider, moderated by Hanna Hamel and Eva Stubenrauch

Digitalization is changing the literary scene. On the one hand, this concerns literature itself as it is being subjected to new conditions of production, distribution, and reception. On the other hand, it also concerns the present-day approach to literature which is characterized by transformations in critical practices, role models, and public formats. As hierarchies are increasingly reduced, literature becomes a ‘ubiquitous’ phenomenon (Schulze) that develops points of intersection with other discourses and questions the traditional distribution of tasks in the literary scene. Social media, in particular, blurs the boundaries between authorship, literary criticism, and literary studies and creates role hybrids that combine formerly separate skills in one person. The new proximity of writing, evaluating, and analyzing brings chances and risks. For instance, greater visibility also increases the risk of being attacked and thus leads to a higher cautiousness, or the activity on social networks may collide with the old primate of critical distance. Especially in the context of new social phenomena such as Baßler’s “Stilgemeinschaften” (engl.: Communities of Style) and their connection between ethics and aesthetics deal with questions of access to material and range, of neutrality and commitment in new ways.

With Lea Schneider, Christiane Frohmann, and Johannes Franzen, we invite three individuals to the podium who will discuss their double roles in the literary scene. They will debate the ways in which digital publication formats and public structures affect the perception, separation, and blending of roles. They will also discuss the historical difference between these post-digital roles and traditional hybrid identities such as the ‘committed author’ or the ‘scholar in the feuilleton.’

Tickets
Tickets: 8 Euro, reduced 5 Euro

The event is part of the series Spielräume der Gegenwartsliteratur organized by the research project Neighborhood in Contemporary Berlin Literature at the ZfL, which is held between April and June in cooperation with various partners in Berlin.