Abstract
Bourdieu describes the structure of society as a result of class conflicts and status competition. Art in general, and the literary field in particular, is interpreted as a differentiated social field that is autonomous in the sense that it follows its own logic - the competition for cultural legitimation. What literature has in common with other social systems is the stratification of its internal structure into a hierarchical arrangement. Thus the literary field can be described as a horizontally differentiated system that is, however, vertically differentiated internally.
The concern of the paper is to test Bourdieu's theoretical considerations empirically. Data for the analysis and interpretation are based on interviews of Cologne writers. The data are analysed with the aid of blockmodel and correspondence analysis. As far as the data allows us to operationalise the thesis that the literary field is an autonomous differentiated system, Bourdieu's thesis is confirmed. The internal structure can be described more precisely: the first line of demarcation is, in fact, the difference that Bourdieu described between legitimate and illegitimate art: high-culture literature and low-culture literature are the two poles of the literary field. The realm of the legitimate literature is further differentiated into three blocks (elite, junior elite, periphery). The elite and the periphery differ in terms of the different degrees of success. The junior elite occupies an intermediate place. Bourdieu's sociology of literature is supported by the empirical material at hand.
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