oa De publieke intellectueel als literair populist

The public intellectual as a literary populist. Leon de Winters public authorship

In this article, an analysis of Dutch literary writer Leon de Winters public authorship in 2012 is undertaken to achieve a better understanding of the way De Winter tries to combine his literary commitment with his desire for literary entertainment. Does De Winter portray himself as a public intellectual? Or is he an example of a contemporary literary celebrity? An analysis of the many media interventions of De Winter in 2012 will show that De Winter uses a discursive strategy that could best be described as populist (in the sense of Laclau’s On populist reason). An analysis of the novel VSV shows that the narrative construction of the literary thriller adds to the fame of literary celebrity and that its populist rhetoric underpins De Winters political position as a public figure. The case of De Winter shows that the desire to perform in the media not only influences authors’ media interventions but also changes the content and construction of the novels they publish.