b2o: an online journal is pleased to announce the publication of a special issue titled “The Question of Literary Value.” Edited by Alexander Dunst and Pieter Vermeulen, and based on a workshop that took place in Erlangen (Germany) on June 20-21, 2025, the issue brings together a range of responses to a question that, the issue editors argue, has remained “surprisingly open”–if it was asked at all.
The issue’s Table of Contents reads like a list of “theses” on literary value that are sure to spark further discussion:
Thesis 1: Understanding Literary Value Requires Institutional Ethnography (Günter Leypoldt)
Thesis 2: Literary Value Emerges In and Against the Story Economy (Maria Mäkelä)
Thesis 3: Literary Value is Nonliterary Value (Pieter Vermeulen)
Thesis 4: Literary Value Rests on Form (Antje Kley)
Thesis 5: Literary Value = the Value of the Novel (Natalya Bekhta)
Thesis 6: To Understand Literary Value Today, Look to Visual Culture (Alexander Dunst)
Thesis 7: Literature and Literary Studies Can Contribute to the Revaluation of Economic Value (Gerold Sedlmayr)
Thesis 8: Literature Isn’t Invaluable–But It Can Be Redundant (Nathan Taylor)
Thesis 9: Literary Value is Unexceptional (Arne De Boever)