From artistic consecration to degradation: The case of Sven Hassel

Sociologists often neglect aesthetic and moral factors in explaining the rise and fall of artists’ reputations. Their focus has often been on more ostentatiously “sociological” variables such as politics, networks, organizations, and power. In this study we make central a pollution dynamic and explo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inActa sociologica Vol. 65; no. 2; pp. 207 - 222
Main Authors Želinský, Dominik, Smith, Philip, Simonsen, Sandra
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.05.2022
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Aesthetics
Artists
Classification
Degradation
Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961)
Militarism
Pollution
cultural sociology
degradation
consecration
Sociology of literature
Sven Hassel
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Summary:Sociologists often neglect aesthetic and moral factors in explaining the rise and fall of artists’ reputations. Their focus has often been on more ostentatiously “sociological” variables such as politics, networks, organizations, and power. In this study we make central a pollution dynamic and explore the overlooked phenomenon of “literary degradation.” We identify two pathways—the downward aesthetic and downward moral classification. We exemplify both these pathways on the case of the Danish writer known as Sven Hassel, once an acclaimed new writer compared to Hemingway in the 1950s. Yet by the 1970s his books were generally seen as militaristic pulp flirting with Nazi sympathies. We show the forces of degradation are divergently activated according to context.
ISSN:0001-6993
1502-3869
2067-3809
DOI:10.1177/00016993211022792