| Summary: | Post-1989, discussions of the so-called controversial author have become one of the central topics in the cultural and literary fields. These were influenced by several factors, primarily motivated by the political and social changes that took place after the fall of state socialism. The article tackles the issue of social determination of authorial controversy through the theories of Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu (authorial genealogy, the notion of the literary field). Chosen case studies help illustrate the way in which aesthetic and axiological criteria shifted in response to the changing ideological requirements that characterise the literary canon at the given time. At present, authorial controversy is discussed primarily in the media where it often serves as a marketing strategy. In didactical practice, the term is based on the incongruity of the empirical author with the institutionalised understanding of literature as part of humanistic traditions. This contradiction is then reflected in cultural journalism as a controversy. Literary historical research draws on archival research and period documents and in this way employs a different theoretical apparatus which in turn enables the scholar to describe period social and cultural mechanisms that generate controversy as part of the period language.
|
|---|