This dissertation revitalizes the sociological approach to literature in the light of the 'cultural turn' in sociology represented by Pierre Bourdieu, Ulrich Beck, Gerhard Schulze and others - and demonstrates its potential for contemporary German-language literature. Advocating the decisive role of the social functions of cultural products, my investigation starts from the thesis that, with the electronic mass media acquiring a dominant role in the cultural sphere, a functional differentiation has taken place, forcing authors of artistic aspiration to focus on the media-specific strengths and benefits of literature as text while at the same urging them to adjust to the consumption patterns of mass entertainment - not least because literature as institution is increasingly permeated by the laws of a globalized market. The result is, as I argue, a neo-realism which appeals on the surface to readers looking for intense, authentic experiences of "reality" and shifts its more challenging artistic dimensions to a deeper level of symbolism, allusions and structural constellation.</br>
My inquiry into the social functions of this new realistic paradigm is carried out by expos-ing the literary representation of the transforming East-German society after reunification, as rep-resented in Ingo Schulze's novel "Simple Storys", to a comparison with the sociological diagnosis of it. This comparison does not subjugate the novel to external, non-literary criteria; instead, it demonstrates the specific features of the literary "grip on reality" as opposed to the scientific one and relates them to the competition with the mass media.
On the individual level, two main social functions of contemporary literature-as-art finally emerge: to work through the cultural knowledge of its readers and their modes of experience, to test their limits and to transcend them partially - and to do the same with the elements of identity bound up with this cultural knowledge, thus facilitating a partial self-transcendence which gives room for suppressed needs. On a more general level, these functions keep reader's cultural knowledge and personal identities flexible enough to adjust to an ever-changing social environment. At the same time, they provide the subjective basis for critical distance and creative innovation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04242008-154328 |
| Date | 16 June 2008 |
| Creators | Schumacher, Uwe |
| Contributors | Randall Halle, Stephen Brockmann, Sabine von Dirke, John Lyon |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04242008-154328/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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