The Booker Prize: A Bourdieusian Perspective

Abstract

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu suggested on a number of occasions that his theories might be applied to areas other than those covered in his own work. This article takes Bourdieu at his word, in applying aspects of his cultural theory, and, specifically, his thoughts on corporate sponsorship, to one of the UK’s most conspicuous examples of the latter, the Man Booker Prize. In so doing, it seeks to demonstrate not only the applicability of Bourdieu’s theory, but also that a Bourdieusian analysis sheds light on the underlying nature of this award, and on the social, political and economic factors that have helped to shape it. The focus here is the structure of the Booker rather than the shortlisted fiction. The main body of the article examines three aspects of corporate sponsorship in particular: the motivation for sponsorship; corporate sponsorship’s distinctive characteristics; and, finally, its long‐term effects. It looks at what Bourdieu has to say on each of these topics, and the extent to which this is borne out in the specific example of the Booker Prize. In discussing these issues the article places the Booker within the broader context of, inter alia, the UK’s literary awards system in the 1960s; major changes in the British literary world from the late 1970s that affected the production and consumption of literary fiction; the prevailing free marketism of the 1980s; and ongoing debates within (literary) academia. It also considers the extent to which a Bourdieusian analysis of the Booker Prize challenges previous assessments of the award, most notably Richard Todd’s 1996 Booker study, Consuming Fictions. The article concludes that a Bourdieusian analysis ultimately reveals the Booker Prize to be both a site of social reproduction and one where symbolic violence prevails.