RT Journal Article
T1 The End of Literature; or, What Purposes Does It Continue to Serve?
A1 Torres Feijó, Elias J.
A1 Even-Zohar, Itamar
A1 Monegal, Antonio
K1 Estudios literarios
K1 Literary studies
K1 Sistemas culturales
K1 Cultural systems
K1 Función social de la literatura
K1 Social function of literature
K1 Literatura
K1 Literature
AB This article proposes to acknowledge the decline, roughly since the 1950s, in the role of literature as a major mechanism of life models, whether conservative or innovatory, and consequently to reevaluate the rationale of continuing literary studies as they are practiced today. This alleged decline does not mean that nonpractical texts, whether written or oral, have lost their various and often indispensable functions for socialization, developing skills, or emotional intelligence. It essentially means that the centrality of the sociopolitical role fulfilled by such texts – and not less significantly by its producers and promoters – has now shifted to other industries. At the same time, in the context of intergroup competition for status based on the possession of symbolic goods, literature seems to have preserved its prestige value.
PB Duke University Press
SN 1527-5507
YR 2019
FD 2019-03-01
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32211
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32211
LA eng
NO Even-Zohar, I; Torres Feijó, E. J.; Monegal, A. (2019). The End of Literature; or, What Purposes Does It Continue to Serve?. Poetics Today, Vol. 40, n. 1, pp. 7–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/03335372-7259859
DS Minerva
RD 6 jun 2026