Course:LIBR548F/2012WT1/Literary Prizes

Introduction

Literary awards are often presented by one or several of the numerous organizations involved in the literature business. These include publishers, libraries, educational institutions/teachers, book stores, and reviewers (de Nooy, 1989, pp. 199-200).

Features of literary prizes to consider are: their cultural value as opposed to other ways that literature can be valued, and the large amounts of possible literature to be judged in any literature competition. Regarding literary competitions, factors to consider include the high level of importance assigned to winners, the public hype that may make the competition/adjudication as entertaining and maybe important as the reasons for the prize, and the regular occurrence of scandals and “wrong” decisions in competitions (Wright, 2009, p. 144).

In a historical view, both pro-prize and anti-prize sentiments existed in classical Athens (Wright, 2009, p. 145), and devaluation of prizes is not a modern development but has always been a part of prize-giving culture (p. 140).

Agreement/dissent among judges

Different types of judges look at different book aspects during the adjudication process. For instance, judges who are educators might focus on the value of a book in teaching reading, whereas public library staff would be interested in making literature widely read (de Nooy, 1989, p. 200). However, awards are meant to present a harmonized view of the literary value of a book (p. 200), which suggests that critics are driven to agree with each other (p. 201).

In an opposing view, literary prizes may be viewed as a cause for critical discussion, not critical consensus (Wright, 2009, p. 175).

Value of literature

Tools for assigning “value” to a piece of literature when considering it for a prize are not particularly reliable, and the value can change over time. The value assigned to a book also depends on the standards used, such as pedagogic/didactic standards or aesthetic/artistic standards (de Nooy, 1989, p. 201).

In the Netherlands in the case of children's literature, evaluation for literary prizes is becoming more and more similar to the evaluation of adult literature. The judges are often from the world of academia, judging the formal aspects of the text (de Nooy, 1989, p. 212).

Literary prizes may also effect the value of future literature in society. For instance, prizes may be detrimental to artists and the value of their writing, they may be encouraged to create superficial crowd-pleasers (Wright, 2009, p. 160), or books similar to previous winners.

Value of prizes

(English, 2002)

The “value” or function of a prize may also be evaluated, for instance as a piece of symbolic cultural capital in a society where some people value, but many others devalue prizes (p. 110).

In the adjudication process of literary prizes, legitimization may happen when the judges' power presents itself as merit (p. 111). However, the internalized prohibition of being openly positive about awards that exists among some editors, reviewers, cultural journalists, means the pure cultural capital of awards really involves other social, political, and economic factors as well (p. 112).

Scandal in the literary prize world adds to this complicated valuation of literary prizes. Perhaps in the postmodern world, scandal around awards actually adds value to the winners instead of taking away, for instance in the minds of mass consumers of literature, among others (p. 113). An example is a rude acceptance speech of a Booker prize winner, which increased the public profile of the prize, garnered more press coverage, made it easier to find prestigious judges, caused fewer complaints about the entry fee and more book sales for the winner (p. 114).

This prize economy full of scandal is very different from the pious views of award winners as being great examples of socially unmediated, high artistic merit. When journalists complain about the scandalousness of awards ceremonies in current society, it does not discredit the ceremonies or the prizes, but rather keeps alive the public idea of artistic value and good taste (p. 116). In this way, critics of literary prizes may be seen as their most valuable allies (p. 117). The true value of a prize is seen to come from a pure, valuable, higher currency (artistic merit) rather than tainted scandalousness (p. 116), so prizes are somehow both dubious and powerful at the same time (p. 118).

At an awards ceremony, the value of the award and its presentation depends on the serious and respectful attitude of the presenters and recipients and the entire literary community. This attitude can be interrupted, for instance by a declared winner refusing an award. Such a refusal is an act of symbolic violence in society (p. 119).

Annotated bibliography

de Nooy, W. (1989). Literary prizes: Their role in the making of children's literature. Poetics, 18, 199-213.

• This paper looks at prizes awarded to Dutch children's literature between 1955 and 1985. The author presents two types of standards to evaluate this literature: pedagogic and purely literary. The types of awards offered and the emphasis of judges shifted between these two standards over the time period the author examined.

English, J.F. (2002). Winning the culture game: Prizes, awards, and the rules of art. New Literary History, 33(1), 109-135. doi:10.1353/nlh.2002.0005

• This author points out that literary prizes are extremely numerous and looks at the effect of this in current culture. He looks at the relationship between power and merit when prizes are awarded, and the effect of this on the literature itself. He also looks the effect of scandals in award presentations, caused, for instance, by the refusal of awards.

Wright, M. (2009). Literary prizes and literary criticism in antiquity. Classical Antiquity, 28(1), 138-177. doi:10.1525/CA.2009.28.1.138

• This article focuses on classical Athenian literary awards and criticism and looks at recurring themes in ancient critics. The author examines the weak connection between the value of pieces of literature and the awarding of prizes. This leads to a discussion of anti-prize mentality and the devaluation of awards, including how awards function in current culture.