Abstract
What is the ethical value of autonomous literary fiction? Doesn’t
literary autonomy lead inevitably to a powerless l’art pour l’art position? In this
article we approach these questions through a discussion of Bourdieu’s ideas on
the autonomy of the literary field, and we map his shifting position over the years.
We argue that Bourdieu’s concept of autonomy may fruitfully be connected with
the notion of singularity of Derek Attridge. To conclude, we illustrate the power of
this singularity through the concrete literary example of the ‘autonomous’ author
Willem Frederik Hermans.
literary autonomy lead inevitably to a powerless l’art pour l’art position? In this
article we approach these questions through a discussion of Bourdieu’s ideas on
the autonomy of the literary field, and we map his shifting position over the years.
We argue that Bourdieu’s concept of autonomy may fruitfully be connected with
the notion of singularity of Derek Attridge. To conclude, we illustrate the power of
this singularity through the concrete literary example of the ‘autonomous’ author
Willem Frederik Hermans.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 33-46 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Dutch Literature |
Volume | 6 |
Issue number | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- autonomy
- singularity
- ethics
- W.F. Hermans