Netzwerke – Werknetze

There is hardly a political, economic or aesthetic phenomenon that could be understood or described today without reference to 'social networks'. This fact is not new to sociology, history, and art history: these disciplines have a suitable, traditional theoretical foundation. In contrast, networks and network research hardly play a systematic role in literary and cultural studies. The present volume makes a contribution to closing this gap. Networks and networks of works (Bruno Latour) locate themselves beyond a 'strong' subject that is still very much alive even in postcolonial perspectives, characterized by its individual history of education and emancipation. With their dispersed "affinités déspatialisées" (Boltanski/Chiapello), they also leave behind the spatial turn and its much-theorized concept of space. This volume provides an introduction to network studies from a Romance perspective. It offers a whole range of international positions on artistic-social networks in the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe. With its historical setting between the Mexican Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall, we illuminate an epoch that seems to be catching up with us again today - in the form of a digitally networked public sphere.