Literary Reviewing and the Velocity of Book Histories in Times of Digitization

Abstract

AbstractWeb 2.0 has enabled a wide variety of practices and processes involved in the production, dissemination and reception of literary works to take place in an interactive environment. Concepts of authorship, the book as such, but also literary reviewing have undergone significant changes as a result, leading, for example, to the rise of the amateur critic. The case of Kristen Roupenian’s short story “Cat Person” (2017), published both in print and online byThe New Yorkermagazine, and its “going viral”, illustrate the speed and alacrity with which literary works today undergo evaluation and how different these kinds of discursive practices are in comparison to more traditional notions of literary reviewing. In the light of this velocity of reception processes, this article re-examines existing theories of literary value and evaluation (as in the form of reviewing and as postulated, e. g., by Barbara Herrnstein Smith) and their relation to book history.