Γυναικεία κυριαρχία στην λογοτεχνία;

 

Megan Nolan, whose debut novel, Acts of Desperation, is one of this year’s biggest literary hits. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

How women conquered the world of fiction'

       In The Observer Johanna Thomas-Corr finds: 'From Sally Rooney to Raven Leilani, female novelists have captured the literary zeitgeist, with more buzz, prizes and bestsellers than men. But is this cultural shift something to celebrate or rectify ?' in How women conquered the world of fiction.
       This is of course the kind of article meant to stir things up -- "men -- and especially young men -- are being shut out of an industry that is blind to its own prejudices" !
       I'm not sure it does that very effectively, but there is certainly considerable comic value in the comments she gets from the men she talks to -- whereby, of course:

The subject is such a hornet's nest that almost every man in the books industry who I approached refused to speak on the record for fear of the backlash.

       Apparently:

That male publisher is at pains to point out that, yes, “the exciting writing is coming from women right now” and that he himself publishes more women. But this is “because there aren’t that many men around. Men aren’t coming through.”

       Oh, men, men, men ..... Come on through !
       Sounds like it's a tough world out there:

“I was having a meeting the other day with yet another 28-year-old woman,” he continues. “I always ask editors, ‘What are you looking for’, and she happened to say, ‘What I really want is a generational family drama’. I said, ‘Oh, like The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen?’ and honestly, you would think I’d said Mein Kampf. She said, ‘No! Nothing like that!’.

       (And, yeah, sure, there's not going to be any media hype about J-Franz's forthcoming guaranteed-bestselling Crossroads .....)
       At least we can now look forward to lots of reaction pieces and Twitter-snark, so there's that.

By Literary Saloon ay the Complete Review