Deutschsprachige Schriftsteller, die Schwedische Akademie und Carl David af Wirsén (Janina Gesches Buch über deutschsprachige Nobelpreisträger für Literatur in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts)

Abstract

The presented text consists of two parts. The first is a review of Janina Gesche’s book devoted to the German-speaking winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature in the first half of the twentieth century. Gesche not only meticulously reconstructed the activities of the Swedish Academy, but also showed the cultural German-Swedish relations in this period against a broad background. The second part shows the activities of Carl David af Wirsén (1842–1912), who as secretary of the Academy had a huge impact on who will be honored with the award. Wirsén’s attempt to create his own rules for granting the Nobel Prize ended in failure, as shown by the theory of Pierre Bourdieu.