Assessing literature – are prizes a literary merit or just commercial publicity?
Once upon a time, a literary prize was a cultural scandal. Sir Walter Scott defined literary awards as a useless medals. Instead of a success for good writers, a literary prize stood for embarrassment, as normally the wrong people were attracted by it (English: 162). For a long time, since 1901, there was just the phantom of the Nobel Prize for Literature, which included not just literary merit for a writer but also financial security.
It is shocking that one could not win a prize and be proud of it! Other disciplines weren’t ashamed of winning a prize for being the best.
Since the 1960s the impact of literary prizes on the culture of publishing has changed: literary prize culture reached a turning point and started to increase. Prizes like the Booker Prize (created in 1964) finally in the 1980s "achieve[d] real economic importance" (English: 172) and publishers, the behind-the-scene-winners of a literary prize, started to take advantage of a prize in form of releasing a new cover edition, attaching stickers on books or encouraging translations.
But although literary prizes gained prestige with the time, winning one is still a controversial issue, as it is more than reaching the 100m line first.The question is, can we judge or assign cultural value to
It is shocking that one could not win a prize and be proud of it! Other disciplines weren’t ashamed of winning a prize for being the best.
Since the 1960s the impact of literary prizes on the culture of publishing has changed: literary prize culture reached a turning point and started to increase. Prizes like the Booker Prize (created in 1964) finally in the 1980s "achieve[d] real economic importance" (English: 172) and publishers, the behind-the-scene-winners of a literary prize, started to take advantage of a prize in form of releasing a new cover edition, attaching stickers on books or encouraging translations.
But although literary prizes gained prestige with the time, winning one is still a controversial issue, as it is more than reaching the 100m line first.The question is, can we judge or assign cultural value to
Literary texts [that], like other cultural forms, have no intrinsic meaning or value (Huggan: 412)?
To receive a literary prize isn't just a reward of achievement for a writer, it is even more than gaining cultural capital in form of recognition and prestige (Huggan: 413):
Prizewinners and, often, finalists are guaranteed commercial success (Huggan: 415)
Is that what it it is all about?
What exactly is a literary prize?
It is a merit, yes, but we can’t deny that it is also an instrument of marketing that increases sales, promotes books and creates celebrities by being media orientated and close to journalistic publicity.
What exactly is a literary prize?
It is a merit, yes, but we can’t deny that it is also an instrument of marketing that increases sales, promotes books and creates celebrities by being media orientated and close to journalistic publicity.
Far more than book reviews, it's literary prizes that shape the afterlives of new titles. (Guardian)
Literary awards have power and this is why they are so important for the publishing industry.
I would like to add that a prize can be essential for especially minority language writers as well; more than gaining prestige, they get the chance of being translated and known in the world and, therefore, a prize can offer the possibility to live from writing.
And as prizes are a part of our society, we should congratulate the winners – whatever category they are in - as they put effort in it and achieved acknowledgement for it.
I would like to add that a prize can be essential for especially minority language writers as well; more than gaining prestige, they get the chance of being translated and known in the world and, therefore, a prize can offer the possibility to live from writing.
And as prizes are a part of our society, we should congratulate the winners – whatever category they are in - as they put effort in it and achieved acknowledgement for it.
For further reading I can recommend this article:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/jan/29/why-books-need-literary-prizes
http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/jan/29/why-books-need-literary-prizes