Globalization and Ethnic Diversity in Western Newspaper Coverage of Literary Authors: Comparing Developments in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, 1955 to 2005

Abstract

In contrast to most studies on cultural globalization, this article examines the dynamics of cross-cultural exchange between and within (Western) nation-states. Through content analysis, the authors study the extent and composition of newspaper coverage given to literary authors of non-Western ethnic origin—both foreign and domestic—in four nations across 50 years.The analysis reveals, among other things, that newspaper attention to ethnic minority authors appears related to various features of a nation’s ethnic minority population, the extent that a given national literary field is receptive to ethnic diversity, and the relative position of that nation in the literary world-system.