Literary Prizes Research Articles

‘So Much for Literary Democracy’

Abstract This study examines the effect and impact of literary prizes, focusing on the Not the Booker Prize (NTBP) and its reception on social media platforms. The NTBP, organized by The Guardian, served as a counter to the prestigious Man Booker Prize, offering a more democratic alternative in which the audience is allowed a central role in nominating and voting for books. This article examines the impact of the 2012 scandal surrounding the NTBP, in which allegations of vote-rigging and author canvassing led to significant controversy. By analysing the Twitter discourse, the study explores how scandal influences the perception and value of literary awards. The findings highlight the tension between professional and lay criticism, the role of social media in literary evaluation, and the transformation of literary prizes in the digital age. Finally, the article emphasizes that cultural gatekeeping is undergoing significant change, while pointing out contradictions and frictions besetting the democratization of the literary field.

REMARKS ON THE CONTEMPORARY VISIBILITY OF BULGARIAN LITERATURE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

This article provides a summary of the current status of Bulgarian literature in the United Kingdom through the prism of works featured in four of the main British literary translation prizes: the International Booker Prize, the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, and the EBRD Literature Prize. Initially, after a brief overview of perspectives on literary translation in United Kingdom, the four prizes are contextualised within wider developments. Using available online data from the websites of each award, the prize-winners, shortlists, and longlists are examined to determine if literary works translated from Bulgarian are present, with the finding that very few have featured to date. However, with the award of the 2023 International Booker Prize to Georgi Gospodinov’s novel Time Shelter, translated into English by Angela Rodel, selected media and popular responses to this news are also briefly presented, as is the immediate impact of Time Shelter’s victory on the profile of translated Bulgarian literature in the United Kingdom. In identifying nascent but growing interest from publishers and readers in English translations of Bulgarian literary works, the article acknowledges existing initiatives to promote Bulgarian-English literary translation. It also provides some suggestions on how to capitalise on this newfound visibility in the British context.

The fourth interpretation of the novel “The Trial” by Franz Kafka

The article examines one of the most famous novels of the 20th century — “The Trial” by the Austrian writer Franz Kafka. Published in 1925 after the death of the author, this book constantly continues to attract attention because of the multiple meanings that can be found in the text. Literary critics throughout the world have developed several interpretations of “The Trial”. The dominant idea is that this novel is a metaphor for the life of a modern person, who is a pawn in the hands of subhuman (albeit self-created) institutions. The article gives a brief overview of the novel’s main interpretations developed over the decades since its publication. Concurrently, an attempt is made at another possible interpretation, for the purpose of which the final sentence of the novel is emphasized. According to this (the fourth) version, Kafka’s work is considered primarily through the prism of memory. It is proved that “The Trial” is a book about the loss of memory and the resulting consequences. The authors of the study propose an interpretation that Joseph K. (the main character) committed the crime he is accused of, but forgot about it, so his death is “shameful”. Given the specifics of Kafka’s entire work, the proposed article does not establish the final version of the interpretation. The study’s authors offer one of the options that may be either close to the Austrian writer’s intention or the farthest away from it. Ultimately, the presented article demonstrates in its own way that each of Kafka’s works, and “The Trial” in particular, has limitless possibilities for interpretations so that each subsequent generation of researchers will discover this novel from a new angle. The studies of Franz Kafka’s work, which are almost unknown in Ukraine, play an important role in the article. Among them is a book by Elias Canetti, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a compatriot of Franz Kafka who devoted almost half of his life to the study of his work. In addition, a literary encyclopedia is also taken into consideration, where it seems that all aspects of the life and work of one of the most famous writers of the 20th century are considered, but the interpretation of the novel “The Trial” proposed in this article is overlooked.

Metaphors of Colonial Trauma in Abdulrazak Gurnah's By the Sea

By the Sea is one of the masterpieces of Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. Gurnah tells the story of past events from the standpoint of Saleh Omar and Latif Mahmud respectively, methodically advancing the story as if it were a jigsaw puzzle gradually assembling a complete truth. The novel uses a large number of metaphors in its implicit narrative, and through the dialectical tension between characters, events and objects with symbolic metaphorical meanings, it accurately grasps the destructive impact of colonialism on the colonized people and the plight of the refugee community after fleeing from their own country, triggering thoughts on post-colonialism, and calling attention to the colonial issue as well as to the colonial trauma of the alienated community.

Slavery as a Cultural Legacy: Abdulrazzak Gurnah’s Paradise as a Case Study

Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian-born British novelist who won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in 1948 in Zanzibar, Tanzania (then the Sultanate of Zanzibar). He moved to the UK as a refugee in the 1960s after the Zanzibar Revolution. The vulnerability of slavery has been discussed by many writers. This paper is going to investigate slavery in Gurnah’s novel Paradise1994, particularly in the lives of the protagonist, Yusuf. This paper aims to follow the journey of Yusuf, a young man who is forced into servitude after his father pawns him. Through Yusuf’s experiences, Gurnah delves into how slavery has become a cultural legacy, shaping identities, relationships, and aspects of society. The paper will identify how the characters’ experiences are shaped by their ancestors’ history of slavery. It will also explore how the novel depicts the social, economic, and psychological impacts of slavery on the characters and their communities especially the loss of agency which can lead to feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness. The paper also shows Social Marginalization as a stigma associated with slavery. Individuals are treated differently based on their ancestry. Yusuf’s experiences illustrate how racial and social hierarchies can be perpetuated through cultural legacies.

Canon y Premio Nobel: un estado de la cuestión

This paper poses the following question: as a world institutional award, what is the influence of the Nobel Prize in Literature over the construction of the global canon? To answer it, we start from previous resea rch and analyze the studies on canon and Nobel Prize published in scientific journals indexed in the two main international databases: Web of Science, by Clarivate Analytics, and Scopus, by Elsevier, since both cover the current scientific production. After reading the articles which are relevant for the research objective, the centres of interest of this critical literature can be grouped into three large blocks: the concept of World Literature and its relationship with the Nobel Prize; the canonical characteristics of the works by Nobel Prize winners, and the influence of Nobel Prize in the process of creating the world canon. The conclusions question the monolithic and monumental character of the literary canon and advocate for a more transparent approach to its construction that considers economic and ideological aspects (beyond the formal or artistic value of the texts) as crucial for understanding its nature and evolution. For example, E. Lameborshi’s concept of ideological fluency and R. Walkowitz’s born translated novels are useful for understanding to what extent the common concepts of World Literature and canon have recently been redefined.

The displaced relationship between original and translated literature: a polysystem view of Nobel Literature Prize norms

ABSTRACT This study analyzes the Nobel Literature Prize award speeches from 2000 to 2023 from the perspective of polysystem studies and the framework of translational norms. Using a combination of corpus-based methods and qualitative coding analysis, it compares, describes, and interprets the discourse features and underlying norms of these speeches. It was found that the awarding institution emphasizes literary works that explore the marginalized or peripheral aspects of society, although its evaluations of original and translated literature exhibit subtle differences. The institution tends to favor niche authors from the Western original literary system, underscoring their works’ universal appeal while highlighting translated works that conform to Western literary conventions. Such a focus suggests that the Westernization of world literature helps reinforce the dominance of the Western literary paradigm. Furthermore, the current analysis indicates that translated literature included in the Nobel system often retains marginal status as perceived by the awarding body, serving primarily as a vehicle for introducing non-Western voices while still centering Western perspectives. The role of translations, while crucial in bridging diverse literary characteristics, is often overlooked, as evidenced by award speeches. They implicitly maintain the centrality of Western perspectives when presenting literature from non-Western contexts.

Interpreting A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner is a famous American writer, who receives the 1950 Nobel Prize for Literature. His short story, A Rose for Emily, makes a deep impression on me. Different people hold diverse opinions on the short story since its publication. Here is my thought: Emily is the victim of tradition and love.

Education of mercy as a traditional Russian value based on a modern teenage book

Introduction. The problem of studying ways and means of educating the younger generation of high moral ideals is an acutely urgent task of modern science, since it is a response to the challenges of the time, laid down in the basis of state policy to preserve and strengthen traditional Russian spiritual and moral values. The purpose of the article is to present the results of a study of the educational impact of a modern children's and youth book on the example of Elena Mamontova's novella "The White Owl" on understanding and strengthening such a traditional Russian spiritual and moral value as mercy. Materials and methods. The tools for socio-pedagogical research were 26 children's books – winners of literary prizes over the past ten years, from 2013 to 2023, and presented on official websites. Among them, the books most in demand by the children's readership were highlighted. The selection was carried out using the methods of analyzing readers' reviews, readers' forms of children's libraries and literary analysis of the ideological and artistic merits of the works. Based on the ideological and substantive criterion, the expert evaluation method selected E. Mamontova's novel "The White Owl" as having a spiritual and moral educational potential. Results. The author summarized the results of the experimental study. The subjects, 22 students of the 7th grade, teenagers of 13-14 years old, first independently, and then together with the teacher discussed traditional Russian values, primarily charity. After the initial independent reading of the book, 82% were able to understand the main idea of the work – the importance of mercy, which indicates the accessibility of the ideological and artistic system of the teenage book to readers. At the same time, special work in the lesson deepened and enriched the students' ideas about mercy: 100% realized the concept of mercy not just as a synonym for kindness, but as the ability to forgive out of compassion, humanity, and show leniency. 60% of the subjects somehow compare themselves with the characters of the story, noting a similar experience in their lives, which indicates a meaningful reading. In addition, some young readers, after special work with the book, were able to go beyond the specific situation and see the problem of mercy in a broad life perspective, talking about the fate of future generations. Conclusion. On an experimental basis, a conclusion is formulated about modern adolescent literature as an important resource for the spiritual development of the younger generation and the strengthening of its national identity. The conclusion is confirmed by the analysis of students' feedback on E. Mamontova's story "The White Owl", which contains moral lessons that allow preserving Russian national identity and help to educate a spiritually developed personality of a teenager.

쉼보르스카의 미공개 초기작에 나타난 주요 모티브 연구

Wisława Szymborska, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature, is a poet who perceives the true essence of objects through a penetrating insight, based on the mind’s eye. She established a unique style as a poet, characterized by concise yet clear language that encapsulated contemplation and introspection. Published in 2014 The Black Songs (Czarna Piosenka) is a collection of unpublished poems from the poet's youth. After her death, a bundle of manuscripts was found in a drawer, containing her earliest works from her youth. The restoration of this collection fills the seven-year gap between her debut in 1945 and the publication of her first book of poetry in 1952. It has been also revealed why Szymborska’s poems about World War II, despite her belonging to the “the War Generation,” were scarcely published until now. This paper examines the main motifs, images and themes of Szymborska’s unpublished early works, focusing on the works from The Black Songs and analyzes their connections to her later poems.

THE MYTHOLOGEME "PODRÓŻ" / "TRAVELS" AND ITS LINGUISTIC REPRESENTERS IN OLGA TOKARCHUK’S NOVEL "BIEGUNI" ("RUNNER")

The article is devoted to the study of the means of linguistic objectification of the mythologeme "PODRÓŻ" / "TRAVELS" in Olga Tokarchuk’s novel "Bieguni". Mythological thinking as a special kind of world-view includes a sensory, figurative understanding of natural phenomena and facts of social life. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the linguistic representation of the mythologeme "TRAVELS" by Polish writer Olga Tokarchuk, the winner of literary prizes ("Nike" 2008, International Booker Prize, Nobel Prize 2018). The research material provides an opportunity to reveal the archetypal and topical understanding of the mythologeme "TRAVELS", characteristic not only for the mythopoetic thinking of the archaic society, but also for the consciousness of contemporary speakers, and the individual author’s world-view of the literary discourse regarded. To achieve this goal, methods of descriptive, component and discursive analysis are used. The analysis allows us to state that O. Tokarchuk provides rather complete information about this mythological phenomenon, which is both a static structure because it contains a system of images and a dynamic one, because it is able to unfold in the form of a plot. The author creatively interprets and modifies the archetypal mythologeme, which embodies the human aptitude for travels and travelling as cognition of the world around, one of the manifestations of human freedom, filling it with new culturally marked semantics, creating a special mythosymbolic model of the world in which the mythologeme "PODRÓŻ" can mean life, interpersonal contacts, loneliness in the crowd, movement without movement, movement as an exploration of oneself through the cognition of the world around, search for the mystery of existence, etc. Only by travelling, says the writer, we can reconstruct the link lost by the mankind between individual traditions and cultures. We see the prospects of the research in the further separation of archetypal and individual authorial treatment in literary texts in the interpretation of mythologists.

Contribution of Seamus Heaney to Irish Poetry

Seamus Heaney is widely recognized as one of the major poets of the 20th century. A native of Northern Ireland, Heaney was raised in County Derry, and later lived for many years in Dublin. He was the author of over 20 volumes of poetry and criticism, and edited several widely used anthologies. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past.

Istoriya perevoda na russkij yazyk proizvedenij Mo Yanya

This article examines the history of the development of the translation into Russian of the works of Mo Yan - one of the most famous modern writers of China. In 2007, his works began to be translated in Russia, although a wide range of readers have known about Mo Yan in 2012, when he won the Nobel Prize in literature. Since that moment, an average of one work by the Chinese writer has been translated and published in Russia almost every year.

Reymont as a Life. Voices and Glosses

The article offers an overview of the content of the present issue of „Tekstualia” and problematizesthe issue of Reymont’s status and meaning of his role as a writer in Polish and world literature sincehis Nobel Prize in Literature in 1924. The article also tries to offer an overview of the scientifi cpapers included in „Tekstualia” issue, but also (as an introduction) offers a kind of reconnaissancewhich focuses on different points of view and glosses about Reymont’s papers and works (especiallynovels, short stories, novellas, diaries, memoirs and adaptations of his great novel – The Peasants).

Controversy as Currency: An Investigation into the Economy and Politics of Literary Prizes

Literary prizes, while providing legitimacy of artistic excellence to authors, are delicately poised in modern prize culture. They must maintain a balance between the artistic merit of literature and the health of the economic capital of the publishing industry and sponsors. This paper meticulously examines the myriad proliferation of literary prizes and the convergence of its intricacies— the process of nomination and selection, sponsorships, promotion, media coverage of the award ceremony, celebratory nature of the occasion, the climactic drama of acceptance speech, and controversy— to characterize the centrality of economic force at play. It reflects the dependency of art form’s flourishing and sustenance on the logic of the economic marketplace. Through a close analysis of the controversial selection of certain authors and particular books, the paper looks at the epiphenomena of prestigious literary prizes to demonstrate a classic working of the neoliberal market outcome of controversy as publicity/currency, which not only brings about manufacturing of aura for controversial writers as celebrities but simultaneously radiates its effect on the demand value of their literary products and investing participants. It concludes that centrifugal dissemination and consumption of mediatised controversy events across national and international borders generates a centripetal concentration of socio-economic capital for writers, publishers and sponsors.

From Canada to Hungary

The first Margaret Atwood book appeared in 1984 in Hungarian translation but that does not mean that Európa Publishing House did not follow Atwood’s literary work closely during Communism. Both her prose and poetry were reviewed, often shortly after the original English language publication. The paper examines twenty-two reviewing in-house documents that Európa Publisher used as part of the selection process and an informal censorship procedure. First, the study draws the cultural context for the in-house selection tools and then identifies key themes in the anonymized reviewing documents of the era, such as: possible titles for the books, poetry weighed on scales, the practice of multiple reviewing, social classes in translation, relying on paratexts, the reputation of international success behind the Iron Curtain, and in what way is this literature “Canadian”? The paper tracks the publishing paths of all Atwood books reviewed during and immediately after the political change of 1989, concluding that the tools for selecting books for translation have changed, not only due to the political change, but as a result of the accelerated publishing practices that focus on bestseller lists, literary prizes, pitches of literary agencies and a network of personal contacts.

Thematic Analysis of Non-Violence in the Select Excerpts of Svetlana Alexievich and Thiruvalluvar

The universal prominence attained by English language has paved way for translation and thereby, offers access to world literature and comparative studies. India has witnessed a growth in the field of comparative studies since it received an impetus from Rabindranath Tagore's lecture delivered on the subject when he was invited by National Council of Education in 1907. Tamil Literature has endorsed stalwarts like Thiruvalluvar whose couplets focus on valuable topics that have not only stood the test of time but also has its influence across cultural, political, ethical and topographical diversity. His magnum opus titled Thirukkural is a masterpiece of human thought, equivalent to the Bible, Milton’s Paradise Lost and works of Plato. Svetlana Alexievich is a Belarusian writer who writes in Russian language. He works have been translated into 35 languages and more that 20 documentary films have been produced based on her testimonies collected from victims, survivors, and firsthand witnesses of war and disaster. Alexievich received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2015, for her polyphonic writing skill which fetched her veneration in the 21st century. This research article aims to compare and contrast how two literary stalwarts belonging to two different centuries and completely dissimilar ethnicities have unified thoughts on human existence. Thiruvalluvar’s views about ‘war’ and ‘killing’ and Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s perception of the futility of war are analyzed in a novel attempt to corroborate that peace and harmony are themes validated since the origin of species and will continue to be valued as long as human civilization exists.

Unnatural World—the Study of Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five from the Perspective of Unnatural Narrative

As one of the most outstanding contemporary novelists, Doris Lessing, a famous British female writer, won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Doris Lessing’s new work Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five has been studied at home and abroad mainly in the aspects of feminism and Sufism in the work. Based on the unnatural narrative theory of post-classical narratologists Jan Albert and Brian Richardson, this paper analyzes the unnatural narrative factors in the stories from three aspects: unnatural space, unnatural role and unnatural behavior. The unnatural of the novel is to prove the unnatural nature of the world in the novel from three aspects: impossible story space, story role and characters’ behavior, and analyze the author's intention behind these unnatural factors -- the world is an interconnected whole, and the progress of human civilization requires people of all countries to be open-minded, inclusive, communicate with each other and learn from each other, in order to jointly promote the overall progress and prosperity of world civilization.

The Nobel Prize in Literature: An Analysis of Success Stories and Development of Possible Recommendations

ABSTRACT The relevance of the research is determined by the interest of a wide readership in the criteria for selecting nominees and the choice of laureates of the Nobel Prize in Literature in the world, as well as the main factors that help to win. The purpose of this article is to study the creativity of writers and poets who received the award over the past three years from the viewpoint of national identity, language and its linguistic status, translation aspect, reception of creativity and influence on the world community, and readiness to solve global issues of humanity through their manifestation in texts. The methodological basis of the article is a theoretical and comparative approach to the linguistic analysis of the literary heritage of one author or another. This article points out the main issues that exist in the international community in determining the nominees and laureates of the Nobel Prize; it characterizes how national identity, the use of national language resources, and the presence or absence of translations of literary works influence the choice of the winner; it also considers how political and global processes can affect the selection of candidates, as well as how the main recommendations were formulated.

Gabriela Mistral: Nourished by and Constructed from the Sap and Blood of Life

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and was a mentor to Pablo Neruda who also went on to become a Nobel laureate, yet Mistral’s work is rarely studied in English translation today. This article aims to bring attention to the author’s life and legacy, particularly through her diplomatic work and writing, with an emphasis on Mistral’s poetry in the hope of returning Gabriela Mistral to a place of distinction and standing that encourages future reading and study. Illustrative of the author’s voice, excerpts of Mistral’s work are woven throughout. The article traces key moments in Mistral’s life from childhood in the Elqui Valley of Chile through her years as a rural schoolteacher and onward to her position as a leader in education reform in Mexico. Through both her writing and diplomatic work, Mistral gained worldwide prominence. Her work through the League of Nations demonstrated an ongoing concern for human rights and especially for the rights of children and women in poverty and in the workplace. She was instrumental in the founding of the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and an advocate for writers and artists and their crucial role in illuminating important societal issues. The article highlights Mistral’s 1937 talk before the Committee on Letters and Arts in Paris and addresses her connection with Pablo Neruda and the story of Juan Miguel, whom she adopted and called Yin-Yin; Yin-Yin died tragically at age seventeen. Finally, the article provides an overview of the life influences, themes, and timing of each of Mistral’s four major collections of poetry in their English translation by Doris Dana (1971): Desolation (1922), Tenderness (1924), Felling (1938) and Wine Press (1954).