Playing both sides of the field: The anatomy of a 'quality' bestseller

- The anatomy of a literary bestseller, a two-sided cultural product, as a case study to explore the mechanisms of recognition in the literary field.
- Research based on interviews and extensive media coverage study and in-depth analysis of the novel and of the dominant literary aesthetic code of the time.
- The analysis holds together the writing, publishing, framing and reception processes.
- A contribution to the debates on middle-brow taste and on the social value of cultural omnivorism.

This article analyses some aspects of the contemporary logics of literary recognition. It does so through a case study of the production and critical and editorial reception of a successful British debut novel, Zadie Smith's White Teeth. I argue that a literary bestseller is a two-sided cultural product that aims at long-term consecration based on autonomous literary criteria and short-term commercial success thanks to wide-ranging marketing strategies. The research is mainly based on studying media coverage and on an in-depth analysis of the novel in relation to the dominant literary aesthetic codes at the time of publication. First, the article underlines the mechanisms enabling a work to have it 'both ways': reaching a large audience quickly while gaining literary recognition. Second, it analyses the categories of perception of the editor of the novel itself and scholars who took part in the process of recognition; it also highlights some of the preconditions for betting on a 'promising' rookie novelist at an early stage. The analysis explores the writing, publishing, framing and reception processes which are often kept separate in studies of literary appreciation.