Author Description

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,