Is it nonsense to have “winners” in the arts? Yesterday, French novelist Annie Ernaux won literature’s highest honour. But some believe that prizes go against the very nature of art.
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Nobel prize for literature goes to Annie Ernaux
Is it nonsense to have "winners" in the arts? Yesterday, French novelist Annie Ernaux won literature's highest honour. But some believe that prizes go against the very nature of art.
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Prize fools
Yesterday, at precisely 1pm, a soft-spoken man walked into the Swedish AcademyThe Academy is made up of 18 writers and critics who are elected to this post by their peers. In addition to judging the Nobel, in the style of the Academie Francaise, it also produces a dictionary intended to promote "the purity strength and sublimity" of Swedish. in Stockholm. The room went silent. The assembled journalists waited for the key line: "The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is Annie Ernaux". Then, they furiously tweeted the news.
It may lack the glitz and glamour of the Oscars or the chaos of the Brit Awards. But for book lovers the Nobel Prize in Literature is the most important award of all.
The Nobel Prizes were founded in the will of the Swedish magnateA wealthy and influential businessman or businesswoman. Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite.1 The Nobel Foundation funds five2 annual awards celebrating human achievement. The first prizes were awarded in 1901.
Ernaux's autobiographicalRelating to the writer's own life. novels about gender, family, class and coming of age in modern France were already celebrated. But her victory yesterday cemented her status as one of the greatest writers in the world today.
The Nobel is big news. As literary scholar James F English writes: "It is almost as though winning a prize is the only truly newsworthy thing a cultural worker can do". Yet while publishers and commentators celebrate Ernaux's victory, there are many that believe the Nobel and its ilkSort or type. to be nonsense.
The Nobel is awarded by the Swedish Academy, a group of 18 Swedish writers. They have made many odd choices. They failed to award many of the 20th Century's greatest writers, including Leo Tolstoy, Henry James, James Joyce, Jorge Luis Borges, Franz Kafka and Virginia Woolf. Many of the actual winners have been forgotten. Few today read Sully Prudhomme, Bjornstjerne Bjornson and Pearl Buck.
Critics question the Academy's suitability to judge. It is almost impossible that its members are able to read and rate the thousands of books published every year in the Earth's 4,000 written languages.
Some believe that prizes even corrupt the arts. In 1935, Atlantic's editor Edward Weeks wrote: "All prizes... are dangerous". They encourage writers to work towards winning a prize rather than proving great art.
Even worse, some say, is that they turn art into a contest. Art is subjectiveInfluenced by personal tastes. . Its power and importance should depend on how we encounter it. Calling one work of art better than another ignores how art works.
Others disagree. Art has always been competitive. The Ancient Greeks had poetry and music contests. The Italian RenaissanceThe "rebirth" of Western learning began in the late 15th century, as European scholars rediscovered ancient manuscripts and began to make developments in science and art. flourished due to painters striving to outdo each other.
Today's prizes are best understood as a tool rather than a real competition. Prizes and shortlists are essentially recommendations. They pick out highlights from the hundreds of thousands of things created each year. In literature, they can help us discover new authors.
They also help the artists. In the seven weeks after Austrian novelist Peter Handke won the 2019 Nobel, his German publisher sold 150,000 copies of his books. Another publisher describes the surprise victory of Egyptian author Naguib Mafhouz in 1988: "We had sold 300 copies in three years - and then 30,000 in three minutes."
Yes: Prizes are worse than nonsense. They turn artists into gong-hunters desperate for trophies and acclaim, rather than genuine searchers after truth and beauty. We should consign prizes to the past.
No: Tens of thousands of books, records and paintings are produced every year. Fewer reach the public. Just by being released and attracting attention, the arts that we encounter are all winners.
Or... It depends on the sort of winning. Prizes are forgotten. Reputations rise and fall. In today's world, the true winners are those artists who achieve the financial success to keep on creating.
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Is it nonsense to have "winners" in the arts?
Keywords
Swedish Academy - The Academy is made up of 18 writers and critics who are elected to this post by their peers. In addition to judging the Nobel, in the style of the Academie Francaise, it also produces a dictionary intended to promote "the purity strength and sublimity" of Swedish.
Magnate - A wealthy and influential businessman or businesswoman.
Autobiographical - Relating to the writer's own life.
Ilk - Sort or type.
Subjective - Influenced by personal tastes.
Renaissance - The "rebirth" of Western learning began in the late 15th century, as European scholars rediscovered ancient manuscripts and began to make developments in science and art.
Nobel prize for literature goes to Annie Ernaux
Newly minted: Ernaux’s prize comes with 10 million Swedish kronor (£800,000). Glossary
Swedish Academy - The Academy is made up of 18 writers and critics who are elected to this post by their peers. In addition to judging the Nobel, in the style of the Academie Francaise, it also produces a dictionary intended to promote "the purity strength and sublimity" of Swedish.
Magnate - A wealthy and influential businessman or businesswoman.
Autobiographical - Relating to the writer's own life.
Ilk - Sort or type.
Subjective - Influenced by personal tastes.
Renaissance - The "rebirth" of Western learning began in the late 15th century, as European scholars rediscovered ancient manuscripts and began to make developments in science and art.