Literatur und Literaturvermittlung im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung

Dr. Elisabeth Böker

Elisabeth Böker studied Book Studies and Early Modern and Modern History at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz where she received an MA qualification with distinction in 2013. The topic of her Master's Thesis was "Fabulous Iceland": the success factors of the Icelandic guest of honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair of 2011.
To conduct her research, Elisabeth organized two research visits of several weeks each, supported by stipends from the German Academic Exchange Service [DAAD] and the Horst Kliemann Stiftung. From 2009 to 2010 Elisabeth worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Book Studies as well as the Media Convergence Research Unit at the University of Mainz. Since 2007 she has worked as a freelance journalist for various papers, including the Frankfurter Rundschau (national newspaper) and the Börsenblatt für den deutschen Buchhandel (magazine for the German book trade). Additionally, she has worked voluntarily at several publishers. Since January 2014 Elisabeth has been a member of the Research Training Group. She received a DAAD scholarship for a research stay in Denmark, Sweden and Norway in 2016.


Publications (selected):

  • Skandinavische Bestseller auf dem deutschen Buchmarkt – Analyse des gegenwärtigen Erfolgsboom. Dissertation. Königshausen & Neumann [erscheint 2018].
  • The Incredible Success Story of Scandinavian Bestsellers on the German Book Market. In: The Scandinavian German Literary Relationship. Hrsg. von Jennifer Hoyer und Jenny Watson, Welsh Academic Press [erscheint 2018].
  • Formen der (digitalen) Literaturvermittlung am Beispiel des Medienphänomens "Harry Potter". Mit Nicole Gabriel und Lena Lang. In: Zeitschrift für Germanistik. Neue Folge XXVII (2-2017), S. 282-299.
  • Eine nicht endende Erfolgsgeschichte. Zum Boom skandinavischer Bestseller auf dem deutschen Buchmarkt und ihrer Vermarktung. In: TRIANGULUM, Germanistisches Jahrbuch 2015 für Estland, Lettland und Litauen, Beiträge des 10. Nordisch-Baltischen Germanistiktreffens (Tallinn, 10.-13. Juni 2015), herausgegeben von Mari Tarvas, Heiko F. Marten und Antje Johanning-Radziene. Bonn: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Reihe Germanistik 2016. S. 561-571.
  • "Tödliche Umarmung". Die Entstehung eines Romans, der dem Tod mehrmals entsprungen ist. In: Non Fiktion 6 (2011), H. 1/2, S. 219-228.
  • Rezension: Stephan Füssel, Corinna Norrick-Rühl: Einführung in die Buchwissenschaft. Darmstadt: WBG, 2014., 20. März 2014.
  • Rezension: Karl Berglund: Mordförpackning. Omslag, titlar och kringmaterial till svenska pocketdeckare 1998-2011, Uppsala: Avdelningen för Litteratursociologi (Uppsala Universitet) 2016, 21. September 2016.






Presentations (selected):


  • "About Mankell, Larsson & Co. The Transfer of Nordic Noir into German." Guest lecturer at the "Centre d'Études Allemandes", Université de Liège, October 2016.
  • "Bestsellers on a contrastive comparison". Workshop literature dissemination and digitisation, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen, December 2015.
  • "The dissemination of Scandinavian bestseller literature". Paper at the conference "between text and readers", Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, IBG-Nachwuchsforum, November 2015.
  • "The German Book Market as a Translational Checkpoint for Scandinavian Literature". Paper at the conference Translational Checkpoints, Gothenburg September 2015.
  • "Scandinavian Bestsellers in Germany". Paper at the Nordic-Baltic German Studies Meeting, Tallinn, June 2015.
  • "Successful import from Scandinavia: Scandinavian Bestseller and Star authors on the German Book Market". Presentation in the seminary "Star authors and bestsellers" at the Nordeuropa Institut, Humboldt-University Berlin, May 2015.
  • "Scandinavian bestsellers on the German Book Market". Paper at the tenth PhD meeting of Scandinavian Scholars, Cologne, February 2015.
  • "A View into a Bestseller Research Project: Scandinavian Bestsellers on the German Book Market". Presentation at the seminary "bestseller research", Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg, December 2014.
  • "Literature dissemination in the World Wide Web". Presentation at the seminary "institutions of book dissemination" at the institute of Book Studies, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, November 2013.





Project: Scandinavian bestsellers on the German book market
Scandinavian literature has experienced a new success in Germany. The boom started 1993 when Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder was published. For more than one year, the book was No 1 of the most important German bestseller list, the Spiegel bestseller list. More than 200 bestsellers by over 30 authors from Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden followed - including Jussi Adler-Olsen, Marianne Fredriksson, Peter Høeg, Arnaldur Indriðason, Jonas Jonasson, Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbø. Crime fiction dominates the lists with two-thirds.
The aim of my dissertation is to analyse which agents and institutions in the field of dissemination of literature and which market mechanisms influence the success in Germany. In addition to the literary texts themselves, I closely examine the transfer of Scandinavian literature from the Scandinavian countries to Germany, as well as their marketing and their reception in literary criticism. My research combines the exploration of the search for market mechanisms for bestsellers and the reasons for the latest boom of Scandinavian bestsellers. Furthermore I determine the role of the success in Germany for the actual worldwide break through of Scandinavian literature.