Norris, Sharon (1995) "Simply the best (better than all the rest?)" : an investigation into the Booker Prize, 1980-1989, with particular regard to the general rise in business sponsorship of literary awards during the eighties, and the likely effects of the Booker on fiction. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2398/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/
[email protected] 'Simply the Best (Better than All the Rest? )' An investigation into the Booker Prize, 1980-1989, with particular regard to the general rise in business sponsorship of literary awards during the Eighties, and the likely effects of the Booker on fiction. A thesissubmitted for the degreeof Doctorof Philosophyat the Departmentof EnglishLiterature, University of Glasgow by SharonNorris, M. A. APRIL 1995 (c) SharonNorris 1995 2 SUMMARY The thesiswas planned as an attemptto investigatethe generalincrease in thenumber of literaryprizes in the 1980sand particularly those sponsored by business.However it is alsoan investigationinto the specificworkings of the BookerPrize as the bestknown literary award of its kind in Britain, andinto the effectsthat prizessuch as the Booker may have had on fiction.