Character Constellations : Representations of Social Groups in Present-Day Dutch Literary Fiction / Roel Smeets.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smeets, Roel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social groups in literature.

Dutch fiction.

Dutch fiction--21st century--History and criticism.

Dutch fiction--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 online resource 252 pages)

Place of Publication:

Leuven (Belgium) : Leuven University Press, 2021.

Summary:

Fiction has a major social impact, not least because it co-shapes the image that society has of various social groups. Drawing on a collection of 170 contemporary Dutch-language novels, 'Character Constellations' presents a range of data-driven, statistical models to study depictions of characters in terms of gender, race, ethnicity, class, age, sexuality, and other identity categories. Incorporating the tools of network analysis, each chapter highlights an aspect of fictional social networks that affects the representation of social groups: their centrality, their communities, and their conflicts. While reading individual novels in light of emerging statistical patterns, combining the formal methods of social network analysis with the interpretive tools of narratology, this study shows how central societal themes such as (in)equality and emancipation, integration and segregation, and social mobility and class struggle are foregrounded, replicated, or distorted in the Dutch novel.0Showcasing what character-based critiques of literary representation gain by integrating data-driven methods into the practice of critical close reading, 'Character Constellations' contributes to societal debates on cultural representation and identity and the role fiction and art have in those debates.

Notes:

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9789461664129

9461664125

OCLC:

1281904714

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access