Wolfgang Hilbig nel campo letterario italiano

How is literary value generated? Reconstructing Hilbig’s trajectory in Italy through Bourdieu’s field theory allows us to sketch a phenomenology of the accumulation and circulation of symbolic capital for a translated author. By considering each translation, essay, or review simultaneously as a form of appropriation and as a position-taking in the literary field, we can identify three relatively distinct circuits: 1) the academic one, where German Studies scholars like Anna Chiarloni legitimize the writer as an object of study; 2) the publishing circuit, where translators such as Agnese Grieco and Roberta Gado, and publishers like Il Saggiatore and Keller, bring the author into existence in translation; 3) the literary circuit in the strictest sense, where writers and critics like Giorgio Mascitelli and Luigi Abiusi incorporate the author into the repertoire of foreign literature known and recognized in Italy. All three circuits contribute, through collective and incessant labor, to constructing the author’s literary value, while simultaneously proposing diverse readings of his works.