Literary Prizes Research Articles

Hesitating, Lost, Reborn: Analysis of Female Images on “When We Were Orphans”

“When We Were Orphans” is a novel written by Ishiguro Kazuo, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In the novel, Banksy’s mother Diana, his girlfriend Sarah, and his adopted daughter Jennifer are representatives of different female types. Based on feminist literary criticism, this article interprets figures of the three females with distinct personalities and reveals the inevitability of their fates.

청소년소설과 젠더 -한국 청소년문학상 수상작을 중심으로-

This study focuses on the ways in which Korean society's gender norms are reinterpreted by the winners of the Young Adult Literature Awards. First, I examined how the gendered family system in Korean society has been transformed and reconfigured, and how it affects the youth identity. Families in the Young Adult Fiction do not conform to conventional models of normal families and gender role norms. However, I critically examined the direction of family narratives by pointing out that the newly transformed familism limits the imagination of Young Adult Fiction. Next, I examined the representation of adolescent sexuality as a consistent practice. Male adolescents were often portrayed as the protagonists of events, which is problematic from a gender-sensitive perspective, and female adolescent sexuality had largely been addressed in the realm of pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth. However, I expect to see more narratives exploring female sexual self-determination in a new light. Finally, I highlighted issues of queer identity that are not captured by the gender binary. The winners of the Young Adult Literature Prize tend to deal with queer identity issues in friendships, and the recent winners have portrayed queer issues in new ways and formats through a combination of family, travel narratives, and romance narratives. Unlike in the past, when queer people were categorically excluded, minority issues have recently been addressed in terms of human rights education; however, it remains to be seen whether this will generate meaningful reflections in the future.

An Analysis of the the Mutual Construction of Individual Memory and Collective Memory in Atonement

Atonement is one of the masterpieces of British author Ian McEwan, which has attracted a lot of attention since its publication, and this novel won him the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. The novel’s protagonist, Briony, makes a big mistake as an adolescent by indulging her imagination, breaking up her sister Cecilia and Robbie, and sending Robbie to prison. Robbie goes from being an Oxford student to a prisoner, and then he goes to the front line in the midst of World War II to get out of prison early. Cecilia, on the other hand, after known this terrible news, breaks with her family to become a nurse. Cecilia and Robbie are finally reunited at last. Briony finds them and repents deeply, telling the truth and apologizes to her sister and Robbie. It seems like an old fashioned happy-ending novel, except none of this reunion is reality. Just as the readers are immersed in the sense of redemption and happiness, the author ends the book with a meta-fictional message telling the readers that the previous happy ending is just a made-up one by Briony in her head, and she writes it down as if it is truly happened , in order to atone for her own sins. She changes the fate of two people and spends fifty-nine years in penance. Previous research angles of scholars at home and abroad mainly focus on narrative art, metafictional ending, war and trauma, the theme of atonement, etc., and what exactly makes Briony made a big mistake, and how she carries out self-salvation, this will take Briony, the main character of the novel, as the object of study, and use Halbwachs’ theory of individual and collective memory to explore her existential dilemma and her self-salvation through the freedom of choice to her self-rescue from her predicament, aiming to reveal McEwan’s use of memory theory and his thoughts on human nature.

Confounded by Time and Love: An Interview with Jericho Brown

Abstract This interview with poet Jericho Brown, winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his book The Tradition (2019), includes anecdotes from his childhood, reflections on life and writing after receiving a major literary prize, meditations on his role as a teacher, a description of inventing a new poetic form, his journey to declare identity within his art, the upheavals of 2020, and shifting attitudes around social justice, censorship, and public education.

Four Contemporary Love Poems by Zhang Zhihao

Zhang Zhihao (张执浩), poet and novelist, was born in 1965 in Jingmen, Hubei. He graduated from the history department of the Central China Normal University in 1988. Author of nine poetry collections, several novels, and some influential essays, Zhang has won numerous poetry awards, including Poet of the Year (2014), the annual Chen Zi’ang Poetry Award (2016), and the Luxun Literary Prize for poetry (2017, Chinese equivalent to the Pulitzer). He is currently editor-in-chief of Chinese Poetry, a quarterly poetry magazine in Wuhan, China. The four poems translated here center on the theme of genuine love and the yearning for such love; they provide an opportunity to access the writings of a major poet in the contemporary Chinese poetic landscape.

Excerpts from Einar Schleef’s "Droge Faust Parsifal" (Drugs Faust Parsifal)

Arguably the most important books by Einar Schleef (1944-2001) are his novel Gertrud, a monologue narrated by his fictionalized mother, his diaries, and the work excerpted here, Droge Faust Parsifal (Drugs Faust Parsifal, 1997). Schleef also wrote plays and short stories, and was a theater director, set and costume designer, actor, illustrator, painter, and photographer. His work deserves a wide readership, yet only a story and a play have been translated into English (Buchner 1982, 130-138; Vivis 1987). Drugs Faust Parsifal’s 500 pages are autobiography, theater history, dramaturgy and cultural essay in one. It won the City of Bremen Literature Prize in 1998 and was adapted for the stage in 2011 by Armin Petras. The selected passages from Drugs, which are somewhat anomalous in a book mainly about dramaturgy, concern Schleef’s personal struggles; they have historical relevance and show his linguistic dexterity, articulated in his “suffering language, a language for suffering” (Windrich 2009, 481). Both as child and adult, he is an observer of a postwar society divided against itself.

The ‘Most Ideal’ Peter Handke?

Abstract The Nobel Prize in Literature to the Austrian writer Peter Handke in 2019 gave new attention to one of the basic, and historically highly disputed (cf. Espmark 2001, 2021), questions in relation to the practice of the world’s most important literary prize – on what grounds, aesthetic or otherwise, does the Swedish Academy award the prize? In the aftermath of the 2019 prize to Handke, there was an intense public debate about the aesthetic criteria in relation to ethical criteria, in particular in Swedish national newspapers. Several members of the Academy as well as members of the Nobel Prize committee, wrote articles and gave statements about their individual reasoning for awarding the prize to Handke. Using this debate about the prize awarded to Handke as a case study, I aim to discuss the methodological and theoretical implications connected to the question of which criteria guide the selection of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Japan’s Quest for the Nobel Prize in Literature and Its Aftereffects

Abstract This paper examines Japan’s quest for the Nobel Prize in Literature as a narrative “before” winning, and its aftereffect as a narrative “after” winning. It first draws from archival material to discuss the roles of diplomacy, the context of Cold War politics and translation techniques in Kawabata Yasunari’s win. Next, it explores how Oe Kenzaburo responded to the negative acceptance of his win in Japan, referring to the court decision on record and Oe’s manuscripts. Overall, this paper shows that the stereotypically held belief that laureates are commended solely for their literary superiority, and are therefore revered in their home countries, does not fully describe the complicated reality.

The Entangled Histories of the Nobel Prize in Literature and PEN

Abstract Drawing on archival records, this paper explores the interrelation and modes of interaction between two major institutions of world literature: the Nobel Prize and PEN, with special attention paid to Swedish PEN and its activities from 1950 into the 1970s. While the Nobel Prize lent prestige to the newly founded PEN Club in the 1920s, insofar as Nobel laureates were recruited as honorary members, PEN in turn – and Swedish PEN in particular – became a highly successful nominator of candidates for the Nobel Prize from 1950 onwards. A striking correspondence between the activities of Swedish PEN and the Swedish Academy’s decisions suggests that the academy oriented itself towards PEN and the circuits of recognition it (re)presented in awarding the Nobel Prize. It also points to the significance of networks and value brokers on a local level and what might be called the ‘glocal’ management of the Nobel Prize.

What Is a ‘World Academy’?

Abstract This article discusses one of the first books nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Franz Kemény’s Entwurf einer internationalen Gesammt-Academie: Welt-Academie (1901), and how it relates to questions about institutions and infrastructures of world literature. It demonstrates the thematic relationship between Kemény’s draft and early discussions on how to organize the selection process of the Nobel Prize and shows that the connection between text and prize consists of more layers than merely the formal nomination. Kemény’s book, as this article shows, addresses the prize founder as well as the executing institution in its paratextual framing, rates the Nobel Institute’s possible impact and gives further insight into how global infrastructures of literature were imagined at the time of the Nobel Prize’s establishment.

A Tale of Two Laureates

Abstract Focusing on the reception of the two Nobel laureates Nadine Gordimer and J.M. Coetzee, this article investigates the literature prize as a national, and indeed Stockholm-based, phenomenon in Sweden. It makes two general claims. The first is that the press exercises a co-consecrating authority that both rivals and depends on the authority of the Swedish Academy. This becomes evident not least in occasional attempts by critics to deconsecrate a laureate. The second claim is that the dramaturgy of the literature prize, beginning with the announcement in October and ending with the award ceremony in December, culminates shortly before the ceremony with the Nobel lecture, when the laureate is heard in their own voice. In an analysis of Gordimer’s and Coetzee’s lectures, the article concludes that they present sharply different attempts at performatively resolving the tension between literary autonomy and heteronomy.

Research on Chinese Translation of the Beach Man s Words from the Perspective of Eco-translatology Theory

Patrick Modiano, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, is a famous contemporary French writer, whose works often take the beach man as the protagonist, and express the writer s thinking on the fate and existence of human beings, as well as the confusion about the identity of modern people. In the Caf of Lost Youth is the twenty-fi fth work written by Nobel Prize winner Modiano, and the protagonist Louki is one of the author s many beach men . From the perspective of the three-dimensional transf ormation of eco-translatology theory, this paper comprehensively interprets the translation strategy of Jinlongge s Chinese translation through Louki s words, trying to show the characteristics of the ecological existence of the translation, points out that the translator s role is very important, and the application of the three-dimension transformation benefi ts the improvement of the quality of translation, so as to achieve good communication effects.

Porosity and Movement in Life Stories

Fueled by intellectual curiosity, literary discourse oscillates between factual and fictional narratives. Continually nourished by reality and imagination, it reflects a binary rhythm of representativeness and subjectivity. This work analyzes the biographical genre to explore the shift in rhetorical boundaries and representations in self-narratives. It examines various techniques writers use to reclaim the territory of intimate stories and lives. Infusing these narratives with meaning and unity aims to bridge the gap between the individual and the world. Awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to feminist writer Annie Ernaux highlights the growing interest in the biographical genre. Ernaux, known for placing intimacy at the heart of her work, brings attention to this genre that often navigates through narratives marked by left-wing and 'politically correct' perspectives. Consequently, the genre emerges as a vital participant in the world's progress, establishing self-literature that withstands the test of time. A cross-study of various life stories — including intimate narratives, extremist views, self-portraits, memoirs, autobiographical novels, autofictions, and travel stories — enables us to understand the porosity and movement within this expansive genre. By presenting and juxtaposing different biographies, writers create a space for interaction, allowing the lives of others to permeate our understanding. Consequently, the biographical genre, serving as a mediating force, and the concept of otherness as mediation are reexamined within the fictional landscape of the human mind.
 
 Received: 10 January 2023 / Accepted: 29 February 2024 / Published: 6 March 2024

How supranational literary prizes shape translation flows

Abstract This article explores how literary prizing shapes translation flows by comparing bibliographic data on the translations of prize-winning books. It focuses on two prizes in particular, the Booker Prize and the European Union Prize for Literature (EUPL), both of which generate significant numbers of translations but for very different reasons. The article develops the idea of ‘prizing logics’ to help explain these differences, singling out factors that appear to play a role: (1) the prize’s translation policy (especially important for the EUPL) and (2) the prize’s prestige and focus on commercial success (particularly relevant for the Booker). It shows that translations of EUPL winners are largely a result of state support, which is linked to the prize’s aim of spreading European diversity and reinforcing unity through literature, while the Booker is more focused on literary quality and stimulating commercial success, thereby leading to many translations of its winners.

The Penicillin saga: a different tale

The Sumerians, but also the ancient Egyptians, as well as Greeks and Indians, used extracts of some plants and fungi for the treatment of infections. Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (1846 - 1916), the author of Quo Vadis, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905, in his novel “With iron and with fire” reports that during the 17th-century in Poland, wet bread was mixed with cobwebs (which often contained fungal spores) to heal wounds. In the same period, in England, in the book entitled Pharmacopoeia Londinensis, the apothecary and botanist John Parkinson (1567 - 1650) recommended the use of molds as a medical treatment for many infectious diseases that affect humans. These treatments often work since many organisms, including many species of mold, naturally produce antibiotic substances. However, ancient practitioners could not accurately identify or isolate the active components of these organisms. Similar experiences and evidence have been found in many other countries, including Italy. For example, Bartolomeo Bizio (1791 - 1862), found in 1821, that the red color assumed by “polenta” (a corn meal dish) was due to a bacterium that he named Serratia marcescens and that its development was inhibited by the presence of mold. After 1850, thanks to the progress of chemistry, the chemotherapy concept for the treatment of infectious diseases began to assert itself. Consequently, some effective chemical compounds were synthesized (for example sodium arsenylate by Antoine Béchamp in 1859 and used, at that time, against sleeping sickness and other trypanosomiasis. It was later abandoned due to its remarkable toxicity). However, thanks to Louis Pasteur (1822 - 1895), in the seventies and eighties of the nineteenth century, the interest in substances of natural origin returned. Pasteur in fact highlighted both the inhibiting action of molds on the development of some bacteria and the antagonism between different bacteria. These observations were taken up by Arnaldo Cantani (1837 - 1893), who tried, with poor results, to apply Pasteur’s concept, developing bacteriotherapy (fight against pathogenic bacteria with other harmless bacteria) to treat tuberculosis.

An Analysis of Feminist Narrative in Doris Lessing's The Story of a Non-Marrying Man

British novelist Doris Lessing was born in 1919 and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007. She is also known as the "greatest female writer since Virginia Woolf". Her The Story of a Non-Marrying Man was published in 1972, and this short story was first published in The London Magazine. The story takes place in the second half of the last century and tells the first-person narrative of the life of a white man who adventures in South Africa and his love-hate entanglement with several local women. This short story has very different narrative characteristics from previous feminist literary works. The author criticizes the oppression of females by males and the self-restraint of women in traditional patriarchal marriages through a circular narrative method and a unique narrative voice. By analyzing Lessing's narrative methods in this short story, this paper interprets the feminist ideas she intends to express through her work. Thus, it is concluded that Lessing believed that a significant portion of women's suffering came not only from male oppression, but also from their own constraints and paralysis of themselves.

Intertestualità dantesca in Electric Light (2001) di Seamus Heaney

ABSTRACT Critics have often acknowledged Dante’s influence on the poetry of Seamus Heaney, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. During the conflict in Northern Ireland, Dante’s political and linguistic thinking showed Heaney a way of cultural reconciliation between the British and Gaelic traditions. From the early 1970s to the late 1990s, political (dis)harmony, linguistic unity, faith and poetics are some of his major themes, often explored through the reworking of passages from the Commedia. After the end of the Troubles in 1998, Dante’s poetry may have taken on a new significance for the Irish author. This article therefore aims to explore Dantean intertextuality in Heaney’s first peacetime collection, Electric Light (2001). Through the revival of settings, themes and motifs (particularly in the remake of ‘Guido, i’ vorrei’), Dante’s presence seems to act as an analytical lens that shapes the poetic self, filters his literary experience, and redefines descriptive imagery.

Exodus and Return: A study of spaces in The Summer Before the Dark

British writer Doris Lessing (1919-2013) is praised as an epicist of the female experience. In 2007, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The Summer Before the Dark, published in 1973, is one of Lessing’s best-selling books. It has been mostly studied from the perspectives of feminism, psychoanalysis, and narratology. This paper adopts an innovative perspective of space theory to analyze the work. Kate, the heroine of the novel, has long suffered from the patriarchal gaze. Kate resorts to a variety of spatial means to escape her original suffering. She tries to get rid of spiritual slavery through her exodus. In the journey, she discovers that only by establishing a firm self can she truly emerge from her spiritual dilemma. Lessing’s pioneering exposition of women’s experience continues in this novel. She points out that the private feelings of women are difficult to find expression in the male-dominated world. The story finally leads to the woman’s psychological liberation and reunion with her family.

The nomadic principle in the novel “Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk

The article deals with the novel “Flights” by Olga Tokarczuk, Polish writer, awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Literature, in the context of nomadological theory of postmodernism. The article’s theoretical basis draws from poststructuralist studies by J. Deleuze and F. Guattari. Their work proposes a new approach to the concept of modern human existence, introducing the concepts of “nomad” and “rhizome”. The analysis of Tokarchuk’s novel “Flights” reveals its nomadological basis, which is determined by the compositional principles of decentralisation, dynamism, and variation of the artistic form and content of the text. The conceptual foundations of both the novel “Flights” and Tokarczuk’s entire literary work are set out in her book “Czuły narrator”, in which she argues for the introduction of a new type of narrator into prose – the fourth-person narrator, who is able to incorporate the point of view of each character, to see more and further, and to exist outside of time. The “Flights” contains allusions to Russian culture, specifically to the worldview of the “runners” (beguny) (or “wanderers”), Old Believers who believed that movement was the only way to salvation. The existential status of the novel’s characters is determined by the fluid nature of personality and explained by the narrator’s statement of the instability of human identity. The artistic specificity of not only the analysed novel but also of Tokarchuk’s entire oeuvre is determined by themes such as migration, escape from traditions and stereotypes, the psychological and social aspects of the nomadic way of life.

Nobelova cena za literaturu pro Jaroslava Seiferta: pohled ze Švédska

The central concern of this article is the Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to Jaroslav Seifert in 1984. The paper focuses on the Swedish Academyʼs motivation for the award, on the official award ceremony and banquet, as well as on other related events. It presents translations of Seifertʼs poetry and other texts into Swedish from the 1960s until the mid-1980s as well as the foremost mediators and translators of his work. The reception of Jaroslav Seifertʼs works published in Swedish is monitored through numerous reviews in the Swedish press. Attention is further given to the standpoint of the Czechoslovakian Embassy, which has been documented in a preserved secret report of Jan Kroupa.