The Politics of Literary Prestige: Prizes and Spanish American Literature

Description

Taking into account national and international politics and networks of prestige, The Politics of Literary Prestige analyses the relationship between literary prizes, politics and the reception of literature from Spanish America. Covering state-sponsored and publisher-run prizes and major awards such as the Biblioteca Breve Prize, credited with launching the ‘boom’ that marked worldwide interest in Spanish American literature in the late 1950s and 1960s, the Premio Cervantes, and the Nobel Prize, this book examines how prizes have shaped what we know about Spanish American literature. It untangles the inner workings of literary prizes in Spanish-speaking contexts, proposes the existence of a prizes network, and demonstrates that attitudes to cultural prizes are not universal but are culturally determined. Through specific examples, Sarah E.L. Bowskill introduces the different functions prizes serve at a national level and on the world stage. She draws attention to states that have tried to use prizes for political purposes and sheds light on how non-state-run prizes and their winners balance cultural and political agendas in an attempt to promote women’s and indigenous rights. This book draws on a range of sources – including speeches and interviews by winning authors, judges' statements, documents that establish the prizes, their rules and regulations, and newspaper reports about prize-giving ceremonies, as well as textual analysis of the literature – to reveal the roles prizes have played in Spanish American politics as well as in the formation of the Spanish American cultural field. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Tables Acknowledgements Introduction: Literary prestige, politics, the prize network and the roles of the author in society Prizes, prestige and politics The prize network Prizes and the roles of the author in society The critical context The structure of this book Chapter 1: Literary prizes, controversy and the state in Spanish America State-sponsored national prizes for literature Brokering international relations with state-sponsored prizes Conclusions Chapter 2: Peninsular publishers, Spanish American authors and prizes for literature in Spanish Publisher-run prizes and the struggle against fascism The hierarchies of contemporary global literature in Spanish Publisher prizes, the celebrity author and the author as spokesperson Chapter 3: Spanish American authors on the world stage A licence to talk about politics Defenders of democracy Spanish American authors talk back Reclaiming universal literature and creating a genealogy of male authors Conclusions Chapter 4: Roberto Bolaño, Carmen Boullosa and Fernando Iwasaki find their voice in the prizes game Critical reception and prizewinning strategies ‘Sensini’ España, aparta de mí estos premios El complot de los románticos Conclusions Chapter 5: The Premio Biblioteca Breve and the forgotten women of the Boom Mairena and Tejera’s critical reception and extra-literary links to the Boom Mairena and Tejera’s aesthetic links to the Boom Los extraordinarios by Ana Mairena Sonámbulo del sol by Nivaria Tejera Chapter 6: Women winning prizes: A no win situation? Evidencing the problem International prizes Prizes for literature in Spanish State-sponsored prizes restricted by nationality Prizes by genre Privately run prizes Women winning prizes for unpublished work submitted using pseudonym Women on the jury Prizes named after women Are women-only prizes the solution? Conclusions Chapter 7: Prizes for literatures in indigenous languages The Premio Nezahualcóyotl in context Stakeholder perspectives The evolution of the Premio Nezahualcóyotl The creation of the new novel in indigenous languages expressing the shared concerns of a new generation Conclusions Chapter 8: The never-ending network? References Carlos Barral Archive, Biblioteca de Catalunya, Barcelona Legal Documents Argentina Chile Panama Paraguay Venezuela Nobel Prize Documents Premio Cervantes Speeches Websites and Online Documents Articles from the Centro Nacional de Literatura CNL Archive, Mexico City General references Index of Prizes General Index