Contemporary literature

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Contemporary literature is an inconsistent term used in literary studies and literary criticism . It describes the entirety of contemporary fiction and poetry available on the market at the time , but also contemporary theater dramas or other publications (such as essays or poetry lectures ) by living authors . The term contemporary literature can describe both the production and publication of literature (publishers, magazines, websites, readings, theater performances) as well as criticism and reception.

term

In German-language literary studies and in the newspaper section , the term is sometimes used to describe German-language literature after 1945 ; but increasingly also German-language literature after 1989 , i.e. the fall of the Berlin Wall . The temporal delimitation of the term is therefore just as inconsistent as the field of literary creation it describes.

To this extent, contemporary literature is a chronographic , discursive term that describes the state of the literary landscape of the present (cf. the term “literary life”). Contemporary literature does not automatically deal with current political or social issues, nor does the actions of fictional literature automatically play in the present .

Institutions

The Critical Lexicon for Contemporary German Literature (KLG) is an expandable loose-leaf collection of information about the life and work of around 700 authors in German-language literature after 1945, while the Critical Lexicon for Contemporary Foreign Literature (KLfG) performs the same function for important non-German-speaking authors. The website Litrix.de promotes (supported by the [Kulturstiftung des Bundes] and the Goethe Institute ) translations of contemporary German literature into other languages. Since 2005, the Poetenladen website has been dedicated exclusively to reviews, reviews, essays and primary texts by young and established contemporary writers. Literature magazines such as Volltext , Schreibkraft , Edit or Bella triste also try to make contemporary German-language literature accessible to a broad audience, and publishers (such as Blumenbar, for example ) are increasingly specializing in the distribution of contemporary literature , especially younger ones.

Contemporary German-language literature

In Germany, the major literary debates were still sparked by authors in Group 47 ( Günter Grass , Martin Walser ) until the recent past . The following generation of the "78s" ( Matthias Politycki ) could only make themselves heard sporadically. After the so-called “ Popliteratur ” ( Christian Kracht et al.) And the so-called “ Fräuleinwunder ” ( Judith Hermann et al.), The so-called “ Wendeliteratur ” and the performative forms of the literary ( poetry slam , reading stages ) have come into focus in recent years . See also the detailed section on contemporary German-language literature .

literature

  • Maik Bierwirth, Anja Johannsen , Mirna Zeman (eds.): Doing Contemporary Literature. Practices, valuations, automatisms. Munich 2012. In it on the term contemporary literature: Norbert Otto Eke: “Observations observe. Incidental things from a German perspective on dealing with contemporary literature ”, pp. 23–40.
  • Jürgen Brokoff, Ursula Geitner, Kerstin Stüssel (ed.): Engagement. Concepts of the present and contemporary literature. (=  Literature and media history of the modern age. Volume 1). V&R unipress, Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8471-0256-4 .
  • Paul Brodowsky , Thomas Klupp (Ed.): How to talk about the present? Thoughts on the methods of contemporary literature science. Frankfurt am Main u. a. 2010.
  • Christian Döring (Ed.): German-language contemporary literature. Against their despisers . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1995.
  • Andreas Erb (Hrsg.): Construction site contemporary literature. The nineties . Opladen 1998.
  • Andrea Köhler, Rainer Moritz (ed.): Maulhelden and Königskinder. On the debate about contemporary German-language literature . Leipzig 1998.
  • Uwe Wittstock : After the modern age: essay on contemporary German literature . Göttingen 2009.
  • Hendrikje Schauer, Marcel Lepper (Ed.): New Romanticism. A Brief History of Literature 1989–2019. Berlin / Weimar 2018, ISBN 978-3-9819406-1-9 . (with chronology, register).

Web links

Essays