SOCIAL NETWORKS AND CLASSIFICATION IN LITERATURE

Movements and currents in literature are presumed to be text-based. Currents are assumed to designate certain textual constants within the development of literature, whereas movements are assumed to represent textual innovations. In this article classifications of contemporary literature are related to the positions authors and critics occupy within the field of occupations and organisations accommodating the production of literature. Authors, critics and other producers use classifications to name and order their social relationships. The careers of a number of Dutch literary authors in the 1970s were used to test the association between the networks of authors and the manner in which the authors are classified according to movement or school. Attention was paid to the networks surrounding literary magazines and publishing houses, as well as to networks resulting from evaluations, comparisons and literary orientations expressed in reviews and interviews. The research project aimed to show the interdependence of the material production of literature, i.e. the process of publishing texts, and the symbolic production, the establishment of an artistic image for a book and its makers. © 1992.