230481 The Politics of Literary Prizes: The Nobel and the Booker (S) (SoSe 2020)

The Swedish Academy awarded Kazuo Ishiguro the Nobel Prize for literature because he, “in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”. This judgement entails significant presuppositions about what ‘literature’ is and how ‘our’ relation to the ‘world’ is conceived. The Booker Prize similarly channels attention, creates interest and boosts the careers of particular writers. Thus, literary prizes discursively construct what we consider ‘good’ literature and they also impact on the respective authors’ sales figures, their self-fashionings and the cultural attention-industry. In short, they shape the literary system and consumer choices via an array of medial channels.
This seminar sets out to explore prize-winning novels by authors of different cultural backgrounds: Kazuo Ishiguro (born in Japan, winner of both the Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize), Anna Burns (born in Northern Ireland, the first Northern Irish winner of the Booker Prize) and Bernadine Evaristo (born in London, the first woman of colour to win the Booker prize). We will analyse these novels in the context of the politics of literary awards and of the corresponding publicity machinery in order to shed light on the function of the novel today.

Bibliography

To be purchased and prepared:
• Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day (1989)
• Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant (2015)
• Anna Burns, Milkman (2018)
• Bernadine Evaristo, Girl, Woman, Other (2019)