English professor Bette London introduces students to Nobel-winning authors and the controversies surrounding the prize.
When American poet Louise Gl眉ck for 2020, she expressed astonishment鈥攁nd even a note of ambivalence. As she , it 鈥渟eemed to be extremely unlikely that I would ever have this particular event to deal with in my life.鈥�
The complexities of the prize are nothing new to , a professor of at the 91原创. In fact, they鈥檙e the basis of a course she鈥檚 created鈥擡NG 380: Nobel Prize Literature鈥攁s well as the subject of her current research.
London has taught the course for 11 years, introducing it when 91原创 launched its programs in literary translation. 鈥淚 thought it would be an excellent way to introduce students to outstanding but often unfamiliar literature from around the world, but I was also interested in the politics of prizes and the institutional structures that support them,鈥� she says.
The literature prize鈥檚 suspension in 2018鈥攊n response to the Swedish Academy鈥檚 handling of sexual abuse allegations鈥攚as only the latest incident in a long history of controversy surrounding the prize. Some of the debates over prize winners involve friction between ideas of national literature and what London calls the 鈥減otentially homogenizing concept of international literature.鈥�
Less than 5 percent of the literature published in the United States each year is literature in translation鈥攁nd for many US readers, Nobel Prize鈥搘inning authors provide their primary exposure to literature from around the world. 鈥淭he Nobel Prize, with its visibility and prestige, is one of the major ways that international literature gets publicized and made available to large audiences that might not otherwise read it,鈥� she says.
The prize鈥檚 renown belies its conceptual unwieldiness. It鈥檚 unlimited by nation, genre, language, or year of publication. In his will, Alfred Nobel stipulated only that the award should go to the author who has 鈥渂estowed the greatest benefit on mankind鈥� and created 鈥渢he most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency.鈥� As often as not, the prize functions as a kind of lifetime achievement award, says London, a specialist in 19th- and 20th-century British literature whose research and teaching is oriented toward issues of authorship.
The capaciousness of the Nobel Prize in Literature is part of what makes it, like the Nobel Peace Prize, sometimes a source of contention. There鈥檚 a kind of public investment in both the literature and the peace prizes, and the accessibility of the accomplishments they recognize鈥攊n contrast to physics research, for example鈥攃an add to popular second-guessing of the academy鈥檚 selections.
London helps her students look at the Nobel Prize in Literature with a critical eye, considering how winning writers鈥� works are viewed in their own country versus the authors鈥� international reputations; what sorts of writers are chosen for the award and those who are never considered; and how to assess works that a reader might be able to read only in translation.
The sheer variety of nations, languages, literary traditions, cultural contexts, and genres鈥攔anging from novels and poetry to journalistic oral histories (as in the case of the 2015 winner, Belarussian author Svetlana Alexievich) and songwriting (when Bob Dylan received the prize in 2016, for 鈥渉aving created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition鈥�)鈥攎akes it impossible for any person to be an expert in the works that receive the prize, London says.
She transforms that conundrum into an opportunity for her students.
鈥淎ll of us,鈥� she tells them, 鈥渨ill be learners together.鈥�
On the syllabus
ENG 380: Nobel Prize Literature
Professor: Bette London, professor of English
Required Texts (for fall 2020)
- Jos茅 Saramago, Blindness
- Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Toni Morrison, Beloved
- Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red
- J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace
Additional books are selected by the class. London says students are quick to note the paucity of women winners and typically choose to add at least one woman writer to the syllabus. This fall, students chose Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, who won the Nobel Prize in 1996.
Contextual readings include
- , 鈥淲hat Our Contagion Fables Are Really About,鈥澛�The New Yorker, March 30, 2020
- Selections from ,听The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value聽(Harvard UP, 2005)
- ,听鈥淭oni Morrison: Solo Flight through Literature into History,鈥澛�World Literature Today 68:1 (Winter 1994)
- , 鈥淢y Name is Re(a)d: Authoring Translation, Translating Authority,鈥澛�Translation Review聽68:1 (2012)
Key questions for students
- What role does the prize play in creating and promoting international literature
- How can literature speak to both local and global audiences?
- What is the nature of literary prizes, and what impulses govern their administration?
