Neroja ja promoottoreita

kirjalliset kuraattorit nykykirjallisuudessa

• Hanna Kuusela Tampereen yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74984

Abstract

From Geniuses to Promoters – Literary Curators in Contemporary Literature

This article introduces the concept of the literary curator and discusses it in relation to the rise of the curators in visual arts. By literary curators the article refers to actors who practice or fulfil curatorial functions in the literary field. In brief, literary curators are actors who mediate, distribute, represent, explain, and promote in new contexts texts that have been produced by others. In doing so, they both create new literary meanings and build their own public persona. More specifically, the article discusses two types of literary curators: textual appropriators and initiators of crowd-sourced writing projects.

In the article, the practice is linked both to the historical avant-garde and the poststructuralist critique of the author. Literary curators reflect the theoretical erosion of the autonomous author as the originating subject of texts and meanings, as articulated in poststructuralist theories and avant-garde provocations. Simultaneously, however, the practice of literary curating is deeply rooted in the contemporary needs to promote literature through individuals. Unlike editors and publishers, who often stay in the background, literary curators actively seek attention and publicity for their own practice and build their artistic individuality. Thus, the literary curator can be interpreted as a response to the ambiguous situation in which the author has been theoretically demystified while in practice, and as a brand, it is more omnipresent than ever.