Marknaden som stilfrämjare

Bokförlag, mediering och retorisering kring förra sekelskiftet

Abstract

The market as a promoter of style. Book publishers, mediation and rhetorization around the last turn of the century

Inspired by Franco Moretti’s distant reading, this article explores how economical and ideological changes in the market affect the form and content of literature. By examining a small but distinct genre, novels and short stories about the Norrland forests and the industrialization process, the article discusses the relation between the increased book production, the many newly established publishing houses, the emergence of the market writer and the formation and reception of the genre. Also, the marketing of literature through book covers is shown to have a formative function for the genre because of the artistic imagery of the northern landscape and the general rhetorization in society of the concept of forest and Norrland.