Imagined social structures: Mirrors or alternatives? A comparison between networks of characters in contemporary Dutch literature and networks of the population in the Netherlands

Abstract

We study whether patterns of segregation and homogeneity in personal networks in the Netherlands are comparable to the network structures of characters in modern Dutch literature and examine the degree to which social divides in terms of sex, education, ethnicity, and age are reflected in literary novels. A representative sample of people living in the Netherlands (the Survey of the Social Networks of the Dutch, SSND 2014, n = 967 respondents and 3424 network members) is employed as well as a representative sample from Dutch literary fiction published in 2012 and submitted to the Libris Prize (n = 170 books and 1292 characters). While controlling for author characteristics, our multilevel regression models reveal that networks in books are more diverse in terms of ethnicity, education and age. However, higher levels of education show more closure in books than in the actual world, and the same holds for characters with a higher age. We conclude with a discussion of the relationship between literature and society.