ABSTRACT
Contemporary German literature does not, of course, exist merely in a definable relationship to political reality in the Federal Republic. Via a diversity of institutions and organisations, it is also an integral part of the social life of the country-of public discussion and of cultural and political issues. At the same time, however, it is also contingent on the given economic conditions prevailing in that cultural life, which also shape the cultural sphere. It is contingent, for example, on the way the publishing industry is organised on a private capital basis, as well as on the public structure of radio and television companies, commercial interests, which reduce books to their commodity character, bestseller lists, sales turnover and publishing strategies and other considerations. All these factors underlying literary life need to be taken into account if one seeks to do justice to the literary work that emerges out of this complex mechanism.
