At the Gates of the Emerald City: Toward a New Theory of Cultural Sustainability

Abstract

In this chapter, we offer a foundational framework for a new theory of cultural sustainability. Conducting what Franco Moretti calls a “distant reading,” we code a database of over 500 individual Oz instances across five dimensions. We then generalize our observations to propose a set of explanatory conditions under which any artistic experience might achieve cultural sustainability. We conclude with a discussion of our study’s limitations and the directions for future research those limitations suggest.