Politics and literary prize: autonomy, adaptation or alliance?

This article presents an analysis of political influences on the choice of winners of literary and book prizes: gender, ethnicity, ideology. By means of structural analysis, the author has found out how political influences on literary prizes are expressed. The historical preconditions for the acquisition of the power of canonization by literary prizes are examined. The example of France and the Russian Empire revealed the uneven change of authority in different countries due to political background. The changing nature of these influences is considered in the example of the Goncourt, Booker, and Nobel Prizes for Literature. The dominant forms of expression of political influences in the context of the Ukrainian publishing field are determined. The author has shown how the place of some authorities of literary canonization was taken by others, how over time the institutions managed to reach autonomy from politics and how this unevenly happened in different countries. The author assumes that the political influence on the authorities of canonization in the publishing field depends on changes in political regimes and scenery. A comparative analysis of the change in the authority of canonization shows that the European prizes from the alliance with politics have reached relative autonomy from it and become institutions, while the imperial-soviet institutions have gone from total subordination for the political regime to the loss of even literary authority. The example of the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Boris Pasternak demonstrates the political aspects of the relations of the literary industry controlled by the communist regime with international institutions of literary canonization. Political factors, which may hinder or promote the receipt of a literary award by a Ukrainian writer, are considered.

Keywords: literary prizes, book prizes, Nobel Prize for literature, Goncourt prize, Booker prize, Pulitzer Prize, literary field, consecration.

doi: 10.32403/0554-4866-2020-2-80-149-159