Meritocracy and Literature: Transcultural Approaches to Hegemonic Forms

Social narratives of meritocracy are reflected in many literary and artistic forms. They feature in plays, novels, travelogues, films, and artistic manifestos. Through colonisation and globalisation, such narratives have travelled widely. This is especially noticeable in Anglophone contexts. Funded by the European Research Council, the MERLIT project will explore how meritocratic narratives shape literary forms, as well as how they are shaped by literary forms in turn. It will investigate how meritocratic narratives are written and culturally circulated, arguing that their adoption in literary forms allows insights into the 'spirit' of a particular age and context. Eventually, MERLIT will aim at understanding shifts in the articulation of value, merit, and success over time, from the 17th to the 21st centuries.