Šiuolaikinio lietuvių romano populiarumas: tarp žanro, rinkos ir pozicijos

LTStraipsnyje analizuojamas šiuolaikinio lietuvių romano populiarumas pirmuoju XXI a. dešimtmečiu. Teorinė tyrimo problema: kaip tirti romano populiarumą, kaip atskirti populiarų romaną nuo populiariojo romano. Implicitiškai romano populiarumas gali būti suvokiamas kaip individualus estetinės ar funkcinės vertės pasirinkimas. Nagrinėjant populiarumą tikslinga įvertinti platesnį literatūros kontekstą, todėl pasitelkiama Pierre’o Bourdieu „lauko“ koncepcija, leidžianti atskleisti romanistų ir skaitytojų pozicijas. Populiarųjį ir populiarų romanus padeda identifikuoti ir nagrinėti Johno Fiske’s „populiariosios kultūros“ koncepcija, „populiariojo teksto“ bruožai bei tyrimui pasitelkta sociologinio pobūdžio empirinė medžiaga – populiariausių knygų panaudos, rinkimų duomenys. Tyrimas atskleidė, kad XXI a. pirmajame dešimtmetyje romanas Lietuvoje nebuvo populiariausias žanras. Tik iš dalies jo populiarumą eksplicitiškai palaikė populiariajai literatūrai priskirtini romanai, leidyklų rinkodaros strategijos. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Šiuolaikinis romanas; Populiarioji kultūra; Literatūros laukas; Kapitalas; Skaitytojas; Contemporary novel; Popular culture; Field; Capital; Reader.

ENThe main goal of this article is to identify and analyze the popularity of the contemporary Lithuanian novel. After considering theoretical aspects of this question – how to study the popularity of the novel, how to distinguish between the mainstream and the popular novel – the author attempts to answer the question, “Was the novel popular in Lithuania in the first decade of the twenty first century?” The object of the analysis, the problem, and the nature of the sources predetermined that the author would draw on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of the “literary field” and John Fiske’s idea of “popular culture.” The study reveals that there is little academic reflection in Lithuania about popular literature and popular novels. An exception can be made for the so-called “journalistic novel,” which is related to marketing strategies. The author argues that this type of novel possesses the qualities that Fiske identified with the “popular text,” which, in turn, determine its general popularity. Authors of popular novels (such as E. Kalėda, A. Urbonaitė, and D. Vaitkevičiūtė) are primarily concerned with economic capital and their position in the field of “mass market production.” Novelists who create works for their artistic and aesthetic value (such as A. Jakučiūnas, P. Dirgėla, and R. Kasparavičius) are not popular in Lithuania, because they have a very limited readership. These writers content themselves with cultural and symbolic capital, and choose a position within the field of “restricted production”. This article also discusses the selection of the most popular books and discovers that readers are solely interested in novels that belong to popular literature, and which can be seen as social, rather than cultural texts.This article also discusses the selection of the most popular books and discovers that readers are solely interested in novels that belong to popular literature, and which can be seen as social, rather than cultural texts. The function of popularizing novels has been taken over by publishing houses, which strategically choose the novel genre and introduce new authors into the field of literature. [From the publication]