Cultural Intermediation and the Civil Sphere. A Cultural Sociology of Literary Production

文学对民主社会具有批判性作用。在内乱时期--在黑人生命也是或#MeToo等运动期间--民间领域的文化结构既受到侵入性的限制，也受到侵入性的限制。作者提供叙事，以便为其他人提供理解、移情或发展团结的解释学手段。他们为民用修复做出了贡献；但他们这样做需要读者。读者群在很大程度上依赖于文化中介；它们使读者能够获得读者群。文化中介是介于作者和潜在读者之间的行为者：经纪人、编辑、评论家或文学奖评审团成员。他们共同制作文学作品，使其在物质上显露出来，并在公众面前可见。尤其是在内乱时期，这些演员不得不将自己定位于民事领域：他们是推销、出版或评论批评性小说，还是忽视了这一点，转而支持批评性较低、潜在更有商业前景的作品？文化中介机构决策中的这一道德因素并没有得到很好的理解。我建议运用杰弗里·亚历山大的公民领域理论，通过一系列定性访谈，对美国出版业的文化中介进行实证研究，从而对此进行研究。这将阐明文化中介的道德因素。关于民事修复的公共话语既质疑又促进了公民团结；在美国，它们的标志是不断加深的鸿沟，这使得这项研究特别中肯。如果我们赞同文学对民主社会起着至关重要的作用，我们就需要更好地理解其产生的理由和理由--特别是那些在商业利益和权力的阴影下的理由。

Literature has a critical function for democratic society. In times of civil unrest—during movements such as Black Lives Matter or #metoo—the culture structure of the civil sphere is both drawn on and under invasive constraint. Authors provide narratives so that others are given the hermeneutic devices for understanding, empathy, or developing solidarity. They contribute to civil repair; but they require readership for so doing. Readership is crucially dependent on cultural intermediaries; they enable readership. Cultural intermediaries are those actors in between authors and potential readers: agents, editors, critics, or members of jury boards of literary prizes. They co-produce literature, making it materially manifest and publicly visible. Particularly in times of civil unrest, these actors have to position themselves towards the civil sphere: do they pitch, publish, or review the critical novel or do they neglect doing so in favour of less critical, potentially commercially more promising work? This moral factor in the decision-making of cultural intermediaries is not well understood. I propose to investigate this by employing Jeffrey Alexander’s civil sphere theory and empirically studying cultural intermediation in the US publishing industry, using a series of qualitative interviews. This will elucidate the moral factor of cultural intermediation. Public discourses of civil repair both question and foster civil solidarity; in the US, they are signified by deepening chasms, which makes this study particularly pertinent. If we subscribe to literature playing a vital role for democratic society, we need to better understand the reasonings and justifications of its production—particularly those in the shadows of commercial interests and power.