打印

作者

Jennifer Lois Joanna Gregson

来源

JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY ETHNOGRAPHY,Vol.48,Issue1,P.80–102

语言

英文

关键字

calling, career aspirations, emotions, artistic work, romance writers

作者单位

1Department of Sociology, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA, USA;2Department of Sociology, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA, USA

摘要

Drawing on a seven-year ethnography, we illuminate how unpublished romance writers employed emotional capital to negotiate the competitive publishing industry. To legitimate themselves as “real” writers, aspirants constructed occupational calling narratives, which they then drew upon to manage their emotions when publication was elusive. We call this process “aspirational emotion work” to illustrate how writers made use of their emotional capital to manage their feelings and sustain their identities without knowing if they would realize their dreams. We posit that aspirational emotion work is particularly prevalent among those seeking work in the creative industries, where potential for self-actualization is high but opportunity for secure employment is low.