Izvorni znanstveni članak
https://doi.org/10.22210/ur.2025.069.2/01
Distribution of Critical Authority – Evaluation of Literature on Social Media
Terezija Šijaković Bošković
; Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu
Sažetak
The paper examines the evaluation of literary works on social media in relation to the formation
of literary criticism and the literary market, as well as the characteristics of the post-transitional
Croatian literary field shaped by the post-socialist social, political, economic, and cultural transitions. Due to the resulting changes in evaluative roles, the analysis of contemporary
evaluators also includes non-professional readers, who use new media as platform for writing
reviews of literary works. Research by Simone Murray and Beth Driscoll indicates that global
trends are mirrored in the Croatian literary field – the contemporary Croatian digital sphere
is likewise marked by a democratization of evaluation and a distribution of critical authority.
New evaluators, active recreational readers, freely express their views and impressions of
literary works and are oriented toward communication and building relationships with their
reader-followers. This is confirmed by an analysis of responses from literary bloggers who
participated in the study on evaluation mechanisms, which reveals that their priority in writing
about literary works is not one-way value assessment, but communication with their audience.
By insisting on communication and affirmative reflections on the literary titles that left the
strongest impression on them, as well as on the freedom to select parts of the text without
considering a literary work or literary production as a whole, literary bloggers generally do
not aspire to fill the gap created by the restructuring of the literary field and the significant
reduction in the number of active literary critics. Analysis also shows avoidance of judgement as
characteristic of non-professional evaluators (Felski 2020: 134) and the need for revitalisation
of the role of professional literary critics in the contemporary Croatian literary field through
proactive cultural policies and by securing platforms for their activity.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
341925
URI
Datum izdavanja:
22.12.2025.
Posjeta: 732 *