“De oude criticus is dood, maar de nieuwe bestaat niet echt”

Abstract

Thanks to the internet, every reader can now become a reviewer. This regularly raises the question of what distinguishes the role of today's newspaper critic. The rise of booktokkers, bookfluencers, bloggers and reviewers on reader platforms is putting pressure on traditional literary criticism. In the digital age, there have been shifts in how the role of the literary critic is perceived. Whereas reviewers once served as important links between publishers and readers, their role and status now seem to be changing significantly. The greater visibility of amateur critics and new forms of literary criticism that have emerged with the rise of the internet are having a major impact on these changes. This has led to the current debate about the role of the traditional newspaper critic compared to that of the online critic, and whether there is a distinction between these roles. The authors of this article aim to contribute to a better understanding of the debate on the role of the literary critic by looking at how critics themselves describe their role. The question we answer in this article is therefore: what view of the role of the literary critic emerges in the traditional and online media in the period 2018-2023?