Disunitedly United: Literary Life in Germany

Abstract

writing, the latter on reading. It is true that a new element of literary life begins with the process of writing every fictional text, since this writing is directed toward the publication and circulation of the completed work that is, toward literary communication. However, the actual writing usually takes place in the antechamber of public literary life, just as reading generally calls for privacy. I point all this out in advance, for in what follows there will be very little mention of private literary life; instead, attention will be focused almost exclusively on public literary life in a politically unified Germany. The promotion of literature and of authors by the state will be omitted from consideration, because it influences literary life only indirectly. The situation of authors in Germany, of publishing, of book-selling and of libraries, as well as of literary initiatives and institutions, will be accentuated.