Agency and Author: German Literature Beyond the Bestseller List

The image of the solitary author devoting days and nights to writing endless bestselling novels remains an insidious and largely unchallenged myth within German culture. In this exacting examination of the German publishing industry, Agency and Author addresses the financial reality sometimes eclipsed by this idea. Focusing on lesser-known German-language writers and their interactions with the Literaturbetrieb (＂literary scene＂), Agency and Author explores the ways authors assert creative agency in an increasingly ’eventized’ literary marketplace. Ranging from the impacts of literary awards to media hate campaigns, this volume spotlights how profoundly the German literary landscape and our understanding of authorship is transforming.

Benjamin D. Schaper is an Independent Scholar, who has taught at the universities of Munich, Durham, and Oxford. A former Sylvia Nash Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Languages, Cultures, and Societies at the University of London, he has published widely on twentieth and twenty-first century Germanophone literature, film, and television. His recent publications include his monograph, Poetik und Politik der Lesbarkeit in der deutschen Literatur (2017), the special issue The Lonely Nerd (2022), and the volume Entertaining German Culture: Contemporary Transnational Television and Film (2023).