Although W.G. Sebald established a link between the life and work of Alfred Andersch, which became the subject of a scandal, his approach was strongly rejected by many, especially in Germany, as an inadmissible combination of fundamentally different aspects. It thus remains unclear to this day how literary construction and autobiographical material are actually related in the case of Andersch. Literary scholars and historians are now working closely on resolving the issue. Their findings, presented in this volume, will be of interest to all those who occupy themselves with the problems and merits of post-war German literature.

In Germany, the debate about the pros and cons of advanced literary sociology sparked off by Pierre Bourdieu's basic work AThe Rules of ArtA has mostly taken place on an abstract level. The present volume is the first collection of essays in German to discuss the applications of field theory for the study of literature in a practical way. The essays are theory-driven but empirically-oriented researches by authors from France, England, Germany, Austria and Switzerland on examples of literature and literary life from the 17th to the 20th century. These contributions extend Bourdiean analysis in a geographical, historical and thematic sense, and constitute, where necessary, a critique and/or further development of his ideas.

The debate on the use and drawbacks of the sociology of literature unleashed by Bourdieua (TM)s seminal work a oeThe Rules of Arta was mainly conducted here on an abstract level. The present volume contains a collection of papers sounding out the applicability of field theory to literary studies. The authors, from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, present theory-led textually based analyses of the present-day literature and culture business.