While most research in King studies focuses on Stephen King’s contribution to the horror genre, this thesis approaches King as a participant in American popular culture, specifically exploring the role the author-protagonist plays in his writing about writing. I have chosen Bourdieu’s theoretical construct of habitus through which to focus my analysis into not only King’s narratives, but also into his non-fiction and paratextual material: forewords, introductions, afterwords, interviews, reviews, articles, editorials and unpublished archival documents. This has facilitated my investigation into the literary field that King participates within, and represents in his fiction, in order to provide insight into his perception of the high/low cultural divide, the autonomous and heteronomous principles of production and the ways in which position-taking within that field might be effected. This approach has resulted in a study that combines the methods of literary analysis and book history; it investigates both the literary construct and the tangible page. King’s part autobiography, part how-to guide, On Writing (2000), illustrates the rewards such an approach yields, by indicating four main ways in which his perception of, and participation in, the literary field manifests: the art/money dialectic, the dangers inherent in producing genre fiction, the representation of art produced according to the heteronomous principle and the relationship between popular culture and the Academy. The texts which form the focus of the case studies in this thesis, The Shining, Misery, The Dark Half, Bag of Bones and Lisey’s Story demonstrate that there exists a dramatisation of King’s habitus at the level of the narrative which is centred on the figure of the author-protagonist. I argue that the actions of the characters Jack Torrance, Paul Sheldon, Thad Beaumont, Mike Noonan and Scott Landon, and the situations they find themselves in, offer an expression of King’s perception of the literary field, an expression which benefits from being situated within the context of his paratextually articulated pronouncements of authorship, publication and cultural production.

Ce travail s’intéresse à une revue littéraire kényane contemporaine, Kwani?, créée au Kenya en 2003. Présentée par ses fondateurs comme une plateforme d’expression pour une nouvelle génération d’auteurs aux trajectoires souvent transnationales, elle représente un objet d’étude aux multiples facettes. Objet textuel hybride qui intègre une grande variété de textes, interface entre différents champs discursifs, la revue littéraire est également le fruit d’une démarche collective construite par des agents qui appartiennent à un réseau de sociabilité mouvant. L’appréhender requiert donc que l’on s’intéresse à son contenu et à sa forme, tout en la replaçant dans son contexte précis de production, de diffusion et de réception, contexte sur-déterminé par les conditions politiques, idéologiques et socio-économiques propres au pays. L’analyse des modalités par lesquelles cette revue a fait son entrée sur la scène littéraire nationale permet ainsi de mettre au jour le fonctionnement particulier d’un champ littéraire kényan embryonnaire, imbriqué dans l’espace littéraire mondial, et fondé sur un certain nombre de règles du jeu que la revue prétend subvertir. Notre démarche s’appuie sur les apports récents de la sociologie de la littérature et de l’analyse du discours pour proposer une première analyse du phénomène Kwani? à même de mettre en lumière la façon dont la revue et ses collaborateurs, dans leur grande diversité, participent à un renouveau littéraire à l’échelle nationale et régionale, et entament ce faisant un mouvement de reconfiguration de l’espace littéraire mondial / This dissertation focuses on Kwani?, a contemporary literary journal started in 2003 in Kenya. Presented by its founders as a platform of expression for a new generation of mainly transnational writers, it stands as a multifaceted object of analysis. A hybrid object integrating a wide variety of texts and an interface between different discursive fields, Kwani? is also the result of a collective endeavour from gathering writers who are part of an ever-fluctuating and transnational sociability network. Assessing such an object requires, therefore, taking an interest in its content and its form, while replacing its creation in its specific context of production, diffusion, and reception, a context which is over-determined by local political, ideological, and socio-economic factors. Analysing the circumstances in which the journal entered the national scene thus allows to uncover the particular workings of this embryonic literary field, which is founded on a certain number of rules that the journal claims to subvert, and which is strongly interlinked with the global literary world. Drawing on recent contributions from the fields of discourse analysis and sociology of literature, we aim to offer an original study of the Kwani? phenomenon identifying the ways in which the journal and its collaborators, in their great diversity, take part in a national and regional literary renewal and thereby initiate a movement towards the reshaping of the global literary world

In dieser Dissertation werden die Repräsentationen von Kulturtransfer in zeitgenössischen britischen Romanen untersucht (Monica Ali: Brick Lane (2003), Nadeem Aslam: Maps For Lost Lovers (2004), Gautam Malkani: Londonstani (2007) und Maggie Gee: The White Family (2002)). Für die Analyse der Begegnungen und Kulturtransferprozesse werden narratologische Analysekategorien mit denen der Kulturtransferanalyse verknüpft. Neben den textimmanenten Aspekten werden außerdem die Produktions- und Rezeptionskontexte der Romane mitberücksichtigt. Dazu gehören u.a. auch das Buchmarketing und Buchumschlagdesign sowie Rezensionen und öffentliche Reaktionen auf die Romane. Mit diesem Instrumentarium werden z.B. folgende Fragen untersucht: Wie werden Begegnungen und Austauschprozesse repräsentiert und bewertet? Welche Gründe für Aneignung oder Abschottung werden formuliert? In diesem Kontext konzentriert sich die Arbeit auf die Repräsentation von Mediatorinnen und Mediatoren, Kontaktzonen und -situationen, Machtstrukturen sowie Selektions- und Ablehnungsprozesse. Außerdem wird untersucht, mit welchen ästhetischen Mitteln die Austauschprozesse gestaltet werden, beispielsweise durch die Untersuchung der Plotmuster und der Charakterisierungen auf Stereotype hin. und welche Effekte dies bewirkt. Die Analysen haben ergeben, dass Kulturtransfer als erstrebenswert bewertet wird. Gleichzeitig findet aber oft nur Assimilierung statt und kein reziproker Austausch auf Augenhöhe. Die ausgewählten Romane setzen sich vorwiegend mit Hindernissen des interkulturellen Austauschs auseinander. Besonders häufig werden in diesem Kontext Gründe wie mangelnde Bereitschaft, mangelnde Bildung und extremistische (religiöse) Ansichten der Einwandererfamilien angeführt. Die Romane verstetigen Stereotype, die dem Lesepublikum bereits aus vielen Massenmedien vertraut sind, u.a. durch entwicklungsresistente Charaktere, typisiert als ungebildete und unverbesserliche Migranten, die Parallelgesellschaften entwerfen. / This thesis analyses representations of cultural exchange in contemporary British novels in the context of migration and the British literary field. It offers a multilayered approach: the combination of cultural exchange theory and its categories with narratological tools do justice to the aesthetic side of the novels as well as their socio-political and historical contexts that are particularly relevant for novels dealing with migration. Cultural exchange theory analyses appropriation and transformation processes, i.e. how the concepts, cultural practices as well as representations change when they are transferred into a different cultural context. Furthermore, this thesis takes into consideration that all novels exist as material objects within a literary field that is affected by editors, marketing people, reviewers, and other agents. The results support the following theses: Contact and exchange are implicitly and explicitly depicted as something positive, with two of the novels emphasising the virtues of selective appropriation. However, the exchange processes mainly work in one direction only and contact between (British) Asian and (white) British characters is limited. The blame for this is often put on the immigrants and their families. The selected texts focus on obstacles and conflicts in exchange processes without offering solutions to the conflicts. In this context, religion or religious fervour along with a lack of education are most often depicted as the main obstacle for reciprocal cultural exchange. The aesthetic means employed are analysed as well as their effects, e.g. whether form and content reinforce each other or produce contradictions. Finally, the thesis shows which novels deconstruct and contradict existing stereotypes and which ones are complicit in reproducing them. Primary texts: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003), Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), Gautam Malkani’s Londonstani (2006) and Maggie Gee’s The White Family (2002).

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht den Nationalpreis für Literatur („Premio Nacional de Literatura“) in Chile, der 1942 ins Leben gerufen wurde und mit welchem bis 2014 48 männliche und 4 weibliche Autoren prämiert wurden. Sein Bestehen über mehr als sieben Jahrzehnte und seine offizielle feierliche Verleihung hat durchgehend die Aufmerksamkeit des chilenischen literarischen Feldes erregt und bot im gleichen Zuge einen öffentlicher Anlass, den Wert der Literatur auf verschiedenen Ebenen neu zu denken und zu diskutieren. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist, ausgehend von dieser vielseitigen Diskussion eine Analyse der Inhalte und Grundlagen der Debatte über den Stellenwert von Literatur und von SchriftstellerInnen sowie deren Veränderungen in Chile vorzunehmen. Die Arbeit ist diachronisch angelegt und basiert auf der Sammlung und Kategorisierung offizieller Berichte, individueller Aussagen und öffentlicher Debatten, die alljährlich rund um die Vergabe des Nationalpreises publik werden. Die Ergebnisse der Forschungsarbeit zeigen, dass seit den 1940er Jahren in Chile Literatur tendenziell anhand der politisch-ethischen Position der AutorInnen astatt der Ästhetik der Texte bewertet wurde. Das heißt, in den meisten Fällen wurde ein Autor anhand seines gesellschaftlichen Engagements anstatt der Qualität seiner Texte ausgewählt. Dieser Sachverhalt erklärt sich durch die große Bedeutung, die der chilenische Staat bis heute als Plattform für Finanzierung, Ausbildung und Förderung künstlerischer Werdegänge, inne hat. / The present dissertation investigates the Chilean National Prize for Literature ("Premio Nacional de Literatura"), founded in 1942, which has been awarded to 48 male and 4 female authors to date. Its existence for more than seven decades and the solemnity of the official award ceremonies has attracted the attention of the Chilean literary field, offering a public occasion and forum to rethink and discuss the value of literature on different levels. The main objective of this research is to present and analyze the arguments that were used in this context to explain why writers and literature are important. The dissertation is diachronic and based on the collection and categorization of official reports, individual statements, and public debates, which were held annually around the awarding of the national prize between 1942 and 2014. The results of this investigation show that, since the 1940s, the arguments used to talk about the importance and value of literature tended to give more importance to the political-ethical profile of the writers, rather than an esthetic dimension. This means that in most of the cases writers were valued for their social engagement rather than the quality of their books. This has happened because of the State’s importance both as financial source for Chilean writers and as network for the development of their intellectual and artistic careers. / La presente investigación está dedicada al Premio Nacional de Literatura en Chile, fundado el año 1942 y que, hasta el año 2014, condecoró a 48 escritores y 4 escritoras. Su fundación hace más de 7 décadas, y su entrega y ceremonia oficiales han logrado concentrar año a año la atención del medio literario chileno, ofreciendo de paso una instancia pública y periódica donde discutir y reflexionar en torno al valor de la literatura y los escritores. El objetivo de esta investigación es, a partir de la organización y análisis de estas discusiones, presentar los argumentos que han fundado un discurso sobre la importancia de la literatura en Chile, y explicar cómo es que esos fundamentos se han transformado. La estructura de este trabajo es diacrónica y se basa en la exposición y categorización de los motivos recogidos en reportes oficiales, declaraciones de los escritores y la diversidad de artículos de prensa surgidos a propósito de la entrega del Premio Nacional. Los resultados de esta pesquisa informan que en el medio cultural chileno desde los años ’40 en adelante los criterios de valoración de lo literario tendieron a privilegiar la dimensión político-ética de los escritores, antes que la estética; es decir, que en la mayoría de los casos se les valoró por su compromiso social, antes que por la calidad de sus obras. Esto, a su vez, se ha explicado por la importancia que el Estado ha tenido hasta el día de hoy como plataforma de financiamiento, formación y acción para las carreras artísticas y literarias en Chile.

Ce travail de recherche pluridisciplinaire apporte un éclairage nouveau sur l’œuvre de Pascal Quignard, renouvelle les problématiques du genre de l’écrit sur l’art et étaye certaines hypo-thèses de l’analyse du discours. La première partie reprend les notions déjà identifiées par la critique quignardienne que sont l’assertion, la latinisation et le sordide, en propose une nou-velle analyse et, à l’aide d’exemples, y ajoute des éléments complémentaires tels les mots-mana, la logique poétique et le pouvoir des images. La deuxième partie articule ces éléments intratextuels à ceux extratextuels que sont l’ethos et la posture de l’auteur ainsi que l’image du lecteur, associant sociologie de la littérature et analyse du discours pour décrire la stratégie argumentative quignardienne. Le dispositif ainsi décrit et qualifié d’écriture inquiétante est ensuite analysé dans la troisième partie à la lumière de l’histoire et de la philosophie de l’art, révélant les liens entre l’image et la pensée quignardienne. / This multidisciplinary research sheds new light on the work of Pascal Quignard, renews the issues of the genre of writings on art and supports hypothesis of discourse analysis. The first part includes the concepts already identified by the quignardienne criticism, like the assertion, the latinization and the sordid, proposes a new analysis, using examples, and adds additional elements such as mana-words, poetical logic and the power of images. The second part combines these intratextual elements to those that are extratextual: ethos and posture of the author and the reader’s image. It combines sociology of literature and discourse analysis to describe Quignard’s argumentative strategy. The device thus described and qualified as « disturbing writing » is then analysed in the third part in the light of the history and philosophy of art, revealing the relationship between the image and Quignard’s thought.

Bengt Lidforss (1868–1913) was professor of botany between 1910 and 1913. But after the turn of the century he also emerged as a charismatic leader within the Swedish working-class movement. He became one of its foremost publicists. In the social democratic newspaper Arbetet in Malmö he wrote about natural sciences but also about political, philosophical and literary issues. As a literary critic Lidforss was the keenest protector of the Scanian literary school, and his struggle for Ola Hansson and Vilhelm Ekelund has made its mark in Swedish literary history, as have his contributions in favour of Gustaf Fröding and August Strindberg, culminating in the polemic articles during the Strindberg Feud (1910–11). Skönhetsdyrkare och socialdemokrat. Studier i Bengt Lidforss litteraturkritiska gärning (Worshipper of Beauty And Social Democrat. Studies in Bengt Lidforss’ Achievement As A Literary Critic) emphasises the paradoxic combination of Lidforss’ fundamentally socialist views and a strong belief in art. To him art was not isolated from society but quite the contrary; a significant factor in the changing of society. The new socialistic human being should be ennobled by arts instead of emasculated by religion. With the help of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “field”, it is shown how Lidforss, by attacking leading middle-class newspapers and publicists, created for himself and Arbetet a constantly stronger position within the field of journalism. Within the field of literary criticism he attacked the middle-class critics, and thus participated in associating Strindberg and Fröding as well as the young Scanian writers with the working-class movement. Lidforss’ literary taste was seen as an alternative to middle-class taste and the worshipping of beauty thereby became fashionable among socialists. The fact that one finds sympathies not only for symbolism but also for decadent descriptions with Lidforss the socialist, has to do with the fact that the descriptions of the discomfort of the heroes revealed the disadvantages of the capitalist society. Nevertheless Lidforss’ issued warnings against programmatic pessimism, since he was of the opinion that literature should strengthen people in their struggle. When it came to the plight of the human being under capitalism he was a pessimist, but he believed the stronger in a future socialist society. The terms for the artists would be more tolerable in such a society, he prophesied. He admitted that revolutionary poetry could be useful but was of the opinion that the quality of art would lessen if it consciously served politics. The revolutionary poetry he praised in his reviews was poetry he found genuine and coming from the heart. He did not favour pronounced tendencies, but he liked to use poetry in a political context. / Bengt Lidforss (1868–1913) var botaniker, men också publicist och socialist. Skandalomsusad och färgstark har han porträtterats av ett stort antal skönlitterära författare, allt ifrån August Strindberg till Inger Alfvén. Hans mångsidiga medarbetarskap i Arbetet hjälpte tidningen fram till en uppmärksammad position. I denna bok skildras hans kamp för en ledande position också inom det litterära fältet. Lidforss var en skönhetsdyrkare av stora mått men samtidigt socialdemokrat. Detta ledde till att han stred på många kulturella arenor – inte bara mot kritiker, författare, och Svenska Akademien, utan också mot inflytelserika män inom kyrka och politik. Skönhetsdyrkare och socialdemokrat ger oss oväntade svar på vad dessa bataljer handlade om och vi får möta Lidforss samtida giganter som Fredrik Böök, Vilhelm Ekelund, Albert Engström, Verner von Heidenstam, Oscar Levertin, August Strindberg med flera.

Dans la seconde moitié des années soixante naissent aux États-Unis le rock et la critique rock.Les participants de ces deux sphères s'unissent jusqu'à former une camaraderie, mais de cette rencontre surgit aussi un troisième champ. Ni vraiment musical, ni totalement critique, celui-ci est avant tout « littéraire ». Il nous met au défi de parler de critique rock pour mieux discuter de littérature et non de musique. C'est dans ce paradoxe apparent que Lester Bangs évolue par exemple. Génie tutélaire de ce petit groupe d'auteurs formés au sein des premiers fanzines et magazines rock, il ne décrit pas seulement les mythes rock ; il interroge aussi leur écriture. Plus avant, ce qui se dessine dans ses textes est le portrait du jeune écrivain « débutant » issu de la grande tradition du « journalisme littéraire ». Cela crée des liens entre les conditions d'accès à l'écriture dans la presse et le devenir « écrivain » en littérature. De même, trouve-t-on des annonces et des échos de ces discours dans le « cinéma direct » américain de l'époque, ainsi que dans la critique rock française. Le film Dont Look Back de Donn Alan Pennebaker par exemple montre déjà dès 1965 la nécessité de la création d'une critique non-journalistique sur le rock. Puis, Yves Adrien s'inspire de l'œuvre de Lester Bangs. Et enfin aujourd'hui à plus de quarante ans de distance, toujours Nick Tosches, Peter Guralnick, Greil Marcus et Lenny Kaye reconstruisent en paroles cette première expérience d'écriture et de publication. Aussi, cette thèse étudiera la création inattendue d'un champ littéraire au sein de la critique rock sur un plan mythographique : bien qu'éphémère, celui-ci s'avèrera fécond / In the second half of the sixties, rock music and rock criticism emerge in the United States. The protagonists of the two spheres gather to create a sense of camaraderie, but a third field also arises from that encounter. It is first and foremost a literary one, neither really musical, nor completely criticism-oriented. As a result, it challenges us to discuss rock criticism in order to better understand literature rather than music. Lester Bangs in particular dwells within that apparent paradox. As the figurehead of this little group of authors formed in early rock fanzines and magazines, he not only describes the rock myths but also discusses the way they are written. The portrait of the “aspiring writer” originating from the tradition of “literary journalism” also appears in his texts. This links the conditions of writing in the press to the situation of the fresh writer-to-be in literature. Similarly, auguries and echoes of such discourses can be found during the same period in American “direct cinema” and French rock criticism. For instance Donn Alan Pennebaker already underlines in 1965 the need for a non-journalistic criticism on rock in his documentary Dont Look Back. Later, Yves Adrien follows Lester Bangs works. Finally, forty years on, Nick Tosches, Peter Guralnick, Greil Marcus and Lenny Kaye continue today to reshape verbally this initial experience of writing and publishing. This thesis studies the unexpected birth of a new literary field through mythography. Though short-lived, it was nonetheless fecund

Between Text and Context: The Theory of the Literary Field and Cultural Materialism as Models of Mediation Josef Šebek, Mgr. Abstract In his dissertation Between Text and Context: The Theory of the Literary Field and Cultural Materialism as Models of Mediation the author deals with the problem of mediation between literary text and its social context. He focuses on two important contemporary context- oriented approaches to literature: the theory of literary field, developed by Pierre Bourdieu, and cultural materialism, first formulated by Raymond Williams and further elaborated by Alan Sinfield and Jonathan Dollimore. He interprets these two theories as basic, mutually complementary models of mediation: the theory of literary field presupposes the existence of a (semi-)autonomous literary micro-world, whereas cultural materialism stresses the full integration of the literary text into the social context, the "social material process" (Williams). After an introduction outlining the problem, the author concentrates on Bourdieu's theory of the literary field, his "new science of works," and on contemporary post-Bourdieusian approaches (those of Alain Viala, Anna Boschetti, Jacques Dubois, Gisèle Sapiro, Pascale Casanova, Bernard Lahire, Jérôme Meizoz, Geoffroy de Lagasnerie) which employ, develop, and modify...

Les antinaturalistes ! Ce terme fait jaillir les figures de critiques du XIXe siècle, dont les noms sont demeurés plus ou moins gravés dans la mémoire et dans l’histoire littéraire : Barbey d’Aurevilly, Léon Bloy, Léon Daudet, mais aussi Pontmartin, Remy de Gourmont ou Jean-Marie Guyau... auteurs fascinants par leur virulence, leur refus de la modernité, leurs positions philosophiques hors-norme ou novatrices... La présente étude tend à montrer la diversité qui peut animer ce groupe, qui se définit par la négative comme « ceux qui s’opposent à la littérature de Zola ». Cette alliance des contraires leur permet de se constituer en force à part entière sur l’échiquier littéraire.Pour appréhender cette tension entre la pluralité des figures et la force d’un groupe dont l’unité se fracasse sur l’affaire Dreyfus, une première partie proposera quelques parcours dans la sociologie et la philosophie de l’époque, qui mettent en évidence un paysage complexe, traversées par d’étranges phénomènes de ruptures et de continuité. Puis, en questionnant la manière dont les antinaturalistes mettent en forme un discours critique. Un chapitre consacré aux rhétoriques antinaturalistes ne fera que renforcer l’idée de multiplicité au sein de ce groupe. Un double-mouvement de construction et de déconstruction de ce concept, conduira à réévaluer quelques griefs adressés à Zola par ses ennemis pour mettre en lumière des phénomènes de ré-emprunts et des positions singulières et paradoxales, qui témoignent de l’importance de l’auteur naturaliste dans le champ littéraire de la fin du XIXe siècle, tant sur le plan littéraire que sur le plan politique. / Antinaturalists! This term brings out the figures of critics of the nineteenth century, whose names have remained more or less engraved in memory and in literary history: Barbey d'Aurevilly, Leon Bloy, Leon Daudet, but also Pontmartin, Remy de Gourmont or Jean-Marie Guyau ... fascinating authors by their virulence, their rejection of modernity, their philosophical positions out of norm or innovative ... The present study tends to show the diversity that can animate this group, which is defined by the negative as "those who oppose Zola's literature". This alliance of opposites allows them to constitute themselves in full force on the literary chessboard.To apprehend this tension between the plurality of figures and the strength of a group whose unity is shattered on the Dreyfus affair, a first part will propose some pathways in the sociology and philosophy of the time, which highlight a complex landscape, traversed by strange phenomena of breaks and continuity. Then, questioning the way in which antinaturalists form a critical discourse. A chapter devoted to antinaturalist rhetoric will only reinforce the idea of ​​multiplicity within this group. A double-movement of construction and deconstruction of this concept, will lead to reevaluate some grievances addressed to Zola by his enemies to highlight phenomena of re-borrowing and singular and paradoxical positions, which testify to the importance of the naturalist author in the literary field of the late nineteenth century, both literary and political.

<p>The dissertation describes a crucial step in the development of a modern writer's identity in Sweden. It applies the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of the autonomous ”literary field” to the development in eighteen-eighties, one of the most important periods in Swedish literary history.</p><p>During this decade a large group of authors appeared, with August Strindberg in the front. In accordance with the dominating esthetical view of the nineteenth century, ”ideal realism”, the writers had an ethical responsibility. But they differed from their predecessors by not being loyal to the bourgeois society and its values, as codified in the concept of ”decency”, that contained, among other things, rules for what could be said in public. On the contrary, the new generation of authors attacked the bourgeoisie in novels, dramas and articles, especially in the singularly most controversial area, the regulation of sexuality and the ideals of bourgeois women.</p><p>This study argues that the new authors in their radical criticism aimed at the position of power in society traditionally upheld by the State church, which supervised education and ethical values. They did this by creating a role for themselves as young and oppressed, something that made it possible to deny any responsibility for the present state and furthermore to speak up, despite their own bourgeois background, for other oppressed groups like the working classes, the poor and women. But this also meant that they could not be successful in their ambitions to gain influence without loosing their identity. This was especially the consequence of the fact that an autonomous ”literary field” did not yet exist. That is, there were no internal literary institutions that, seemingly independent of the rest of society, decided what was ”good literature.” Instead, the singularly most important judge of interesting literature was the bourgeois public. Strindberg seems to have realised this early, and achieved an identity as ”uncontrolled”. He thereby lost his intellectual credibility, but gained a much bigger freedom to write and also got the attention of the large audience. At the same time, his writing undermined the values of decency by breaking the bourgeois society’s fundamental wall between the private and the public sphere, not least by writing what was regarded as facts about his own private life. </p><p>The conservative reaction accelerated towards the end of the decade while the authors grew more and more bitter about the public’s lack of understanding. At this point the author Verner von Heidenstam took the opportunity to declare a new literary era, dissociating his aesthetics from the one of the Eighties and proclaiming the necessity of an aristocratic, ethically indifferent literature (with himself as its leader). </p><p>Confronted with the new concept of what ought to be regarded as “modern”, the established male authors were generally quick to separate themselves from the female authors, and to identify the attacked literature solely with the one that critically discussed the situation of women in society - a description that has been largely adopted in the history of literature. A number of male authors also wrote novels separating themselves from the Eighties. Thus, they could continue into the new period, while female authors in general were silenced or forced to write in less esteemed genres (”popular literature”, children’s books). </p><p>Ultimately the result was a more distinct male domination coupled with a growing contempt for the large audience. This, in turn, created a need for internal institutions that could interpret, value and support literature - scholarships, elitist critics, and a writers’ union. These institutions subsequently were founded or developed during the nineties – all of them steps towards autonomy.</p>