Academic literary institutes are among the most important institutions in the contemporary world of literature. Now that the oldest writing schools have been training authors for around twenty years, the “prose institute” and its originators have made it to the centre of the literary scene. Yet studies of them—at least in Germany—are notable by their absence. This book can thus be seen as the first literary exploration of an important phenomenon in contemporary literature. By reinvesting it with poetology and the sociology of literature, the term “prose institute”, which has hitherto typically had a pejorative sense, is used as an analytical screen to sift the main problem areas and issues relating to literary institutes and their role in contemporary literature.
Text: Marie Caffari, Claudia Dürr, Johannes Franzen, Sara Heristchi, Wolfgang Hottner, Kevin Kempke, Sonja Lewandowski, Johanne Mohs, Katja Stopka, Lena Vöcklinghaus, Miriam Zeh
