Literary Festivals and Contemporary Book Culture

Contents: 

Chapter 1: Introduction

• Contemporary Literary Festivals
• Brief Context and History
• Defining Literary Festivals
• Existing Research
• Research Goals
• Conclusion
• Bibliography 

Chapter 2: Recognising Literary Festivals

• Production and Consumption, Commerce and Culture
• From the Public Sphere to the Literary Field
• Print Culture, Cultural Policy, and the Public Intellectual
• Creating Value: Literary Celebrity and Literary Prizes
• Arts Festivals
• Literary Festivals
• The Literary Festival Audience
• Theoretical and Conceptual FrameworkLiterary Studies and Book History: Reader, Readership, Public
• Media and Communications Studies: Consumers and the Mass Audience
• Theatre and Performance Studies: Spectator Experience and the Theatre Audience
• Introducing the Audience
• Research Design
• The Case Studies
• Methodological Limitations
• Conclusion
• Bibliography 

Chapter 3: Patterns of Attendance and Experience

• Introducing the Data
• The Qualitative Case Studies
• Edinburgh International Book Festival
• Melbourne Writers Festival
• Emerging Writers' Festival
• Clunes Booktown Festival
• Port Eliot Festival Quantitative Survey
• Functions of the Audience Member: Spectator, Festival-goer, and Festival Participant
• Motivations to Attend
• Patterns of Experience and Interpretation
• Positive and Negative Experiences
• Active and Passive Engagement
• Scholarly, Vernacular, and Middlebrow Engagement
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

Chapter 4: Online and Onsite: Intersections in Embodied and Digital Engagement

• Framing the Relationship Between Live and Digital
• The Digital Age
• Digital Engagement with Literature and Literary Communities
• Reading as Socially Engaged Activity
• Materiality and VirtualityThe Appeal of the Live Event
• Encountering the Writer
• Engagement with the Physical Space
• Shared Space and Shared Experience
• Meetings and Findings
• Uniqueness
• Comparisons and Crossovers Between Virtual and Live Engagement
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

Chapter 5: Festival as Policy Vehicle: Creative Industries, Creative Cities, and the Creative Class

• Cultural Policy and the Literary Festival: Historical Context
• Literary Events and Ideological Projects
• The Contemporary Literary Festival
• Contemporary Cultural Policy: Cultural and Creative Industries Perspectives.;
• The Emergence of Cultural Policy in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and the United States Broadening Conceptions of Culture and the Introduction of Cultural Industries
• Key Proponents of Creative Industries
• Comparing Creative Industries Discourse and Literary Festivals: Key Constituencies
• Comparing Creative Industries Discourse and Literary Festivals: Shared Social Values and Agendas
• Reservations Regarding the Creative Industries Framework
• Negotiations Between the Cultural and the Commercial
• Lack of Ethical Engagement with Social Issues