Assessing the neoliberal Künstlerroman. 'Creative' self-realisation and the art world in Michael Cunningham's by Nightfall

Abstract

This article identifies fertile ground to explore the relationship between literature and neoliberalism in recent novels concerned with the analysis of the contemporary art system. Its main objective has to do with acknowledging the impact of artistic systems of valorisation and regulation in processes of self-definition and self-fulfilment taking place in broader spheres of the social. Simultaneously, the article also engages with the conditions of possibility of alternative art worlds. The article recognises the Künstlerroman form as a particularly suitable platform to understand the subsumption of literary production under neoliberalism. At the same time, it also acknowledges the potential of that form to articulate critical positionings against neoliberal reason while envisaging alternative futures.