The Nation's Canon and the Book Trade

In this: publication
By this: publisher
In this Subject: History ,&nbsp; Political Science
By this author: Leerssen, Joep

Author: Leerssen, Joep

Source: European Studies: A Journal of European Culture, History and Politics, Editing the nation's memory: Textual scholarship and nation-building in Ninetenth-century europe. Edited by Dirk Van Hulle and Joep Leerssen , pp. 305-317(13)

Publisher: Rodopi

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Abstract:

Taking the case of a book series claiming to be a 'Library of the Complete German National Literature' (running from 1835 until the early 1860s), this article looks at the emergence of a readership for the medieval classics in what was, around these decades, becoming a self-evidently national canon. The commercially-driven enterprise is here presented, not only in the context of the ongoing professionalisation and growing academic prestige and ethos of the philologies, but also in its competition with the dissemination forum of bibliophile societies with publications-for-members. Between sociability, academic careerism and a widening appeal of 'nationality', the popularisation and nationwide acceptance of the idea of a 'national literature' as a self-evident taxonomic unit is here traced in its early, hesitant beginnings.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2008-10-01