For many, literature and marketing are considered opposite phenomena. This book discusses cases in which the two are closely connected. It argues that literature is subject to the same mechanisms as other commercial products: our experience of literary texts is prefigured by brands, trademarks that identify a product and differentiate it from its competitors. From the early modern period onwards, literary authors and their texts are constantly ‘branded’ and have been both the object and the trailblazer of a complex marketing process. The authors of this volume analyze this branding process throughout the centuries, focusing on the Netherlands. To what extent is our experience of Dutch literature prefigured by brands, and what role does branding play when introducing European authors in the Dutch literary field (or vice versa)? By answering these questions, Branding Books Across the Ages seeks to show how literary scholars understand branding – a phenomenon that has long been intertwined with literature.
For many, literature and marketing are considered opposite phenomena. This book discusses cases in which the two are closely connected. It argues that literature is subject to the same mechanisms as other commercial products: our experience of literary texts is prefigured by brands, trademarks that identify a product and differentiate it from its competitors. From the early modern period onwards, literary authors and their texts are constantly ‘branded’ and have been both the object and the trailblazer of a complex marketing process. The authors of this volume analyze this branding process throughout the centuries, focusing on the Netherlands. To what extent is our experience of Dutch literature prefigured by brands, and what role does branding play when introducing European authors in the Dutch literary field (or vice versa)? By answering these questions, Branding Books Across the Ages seeks to show how literary scholars understand branding – a phenomenon that has long been intertwined with literature.
Introduction. Branding Books Across the Ages: Strategies and Key
Concepts in Literary Branding (Jeroen Dera, Helleke van den Braber,
Jos Joosten, and Maarten Steenmeijer)
Cultural Branding in the Early Modern Period: The Literary Author
(Lieke van Deinsen & Nina Geerdink)
Telling a Double Story: The Branding of a Cultural Magazine
1904-1919 (Helleke van den Braber)
A Hero and His History: The Branding of Jan III Sobieski and His
Letters in the Northern Netherlands during The Early Nineteenth
Century (Paul Hulsenboom)
From Immorality to Immortality: Branding Madame Bovary in the
Netherlands (Maaike Koffeman)
Allegories of Branding: How to Successfully Fail Charles Bukowski
(Gaston Franssen)
Branding or Excluding? The Tenability of the 'Branding' Concept in
the History of Nineteenth-Century Dutch Book Publishing, Book
Printing, and Bookselling (Rob van de Schoor)
Hugo Claus: 'I'm not Searching for Myself, but for the Media. I
Don't Know Who I Am, I'm not Interested' (Gwennie Debergh)
One Book's Brand is Another Book's Frame: Covering the Dutch Cover
of Carlos Ruiz Zafón's La sombra del viento (Maarten
Steenmeijer)
'The Most Successful Writer of the Netherlands': On the Success
Myth of Dutch Bestseller Author Herman Koch (Sander Bax)
Young Adults as Branded Readers (Linda Ackermans)
Of Dust and Dollars: Branding Poetry in the 21st Century. The Case
of Ellen Deckwitz (Jeroen Dera)
'This Is What We Share': Co-Branding Dutch Literature at the 2016
Frankfurt Book Fair (Jack McMartin)
The One Unforgivable Transgression? Branding 'Kluun' as a Literary
Strategy (Jos Joosten)
Branding the Open-Minded Nation: Dutch Authors at the 2011 Beijing
Book Fair (Laurens Ham)
Against the Grain: The Das Mag Brand and Lize Spit's The Melting
(2016) (Roel Smeets)
Afterword. In Search of the Most Effective Way of Branding: The
Label 'Literature' as a Means to an End (Bertram Mourits)
Bibliography
Index
Helleke van den Braber holds an endowed chair in Patronage Studies at Utrecht University (the Netherlands), and is director of studies of the Department of Literary and Cultural Studies at Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands), where she coordinates MA programmes in ‘Cultural Policy and Patronage’ and ‘Creative Industries’. Jeroen Dera is Assistant Professor of Dutch Literature at Radboud University. His research concerns contemporary poetry, literature education, and the relation between literature and the media industries. Jos Joosten is Professor of Dutch Literature at Radboud University. He is a member of the research group SCARAB (Studying Cultural Infrastructure and Reception Across Borders) and has published several articles and books on the theory and practice of literary criticism and book reviewing. Maarten Steenmeijer is Emeritus Professor of Modern Spanish and Spanish American Literature and Culture at Radboud University, and specializes in reception and translation studies.
"Branding books across the ages is een uiterst gevarieerde, naar
zijn aard heterogene, maar bijna steeds onderhoudende en dikwijls
grondige analyse van literaire casuïstiek. Of het nu gaat om het
geploeter van Albert Verwey met de exploitatie van zijn tijdschrift
De Beweging of om de opeenvolgende vertaalde Nederlandse edities –
afwisselend als high en low culture – van Gustave Flauberts Madame
Bovary, om het woeste schrijversimago van Charles Bukowski of om de
brutale prstunts die Hugo Claus uithaalde bij gelegenheid van zijn
schrijversdebuut, steeds draait het om de vraag welke middelen op
welke manier en met welk effect door wie werden ingezet om
erkenning en vooral succes te bereiken."
- Maarten Asscher, Boekman 129 (2021)
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