Nobel (Sur)Prizes: The Business of Literary Reputation Course Description: Spring 2018 GSD 340 (37770) / C L 323 (33205) / EUS 347 (35935) Instructor: Katherine Arens ([email protected]> Nobel Prizes in "literature" offer an astounding array of surprises. In 2015, Svetlana Alexievich, a historian, was awarded the prize for "literature." In 1999, Günter Grass, author of The Tin Drum (1959) and other controversial social-critical novels, was awarded the Nobel Prize -- the 7th German, and the 11th German-language author to do so --, but he was on the public's list of probable winners since the late 70s, with his best work purportedly behind him (not true). Such Nobel Prize surprises chart a fantastic map to Europe's imagined identity as the heart of Western culture -- and to how literary reputations are made, brokered, and broken on the markets of international media politics. Starting with recent prize winners from Northern and Central Europe, and moving backwards in time, this course will introduce some Nobel-Prize-winning authors (authors who wrote in German, the Scandinavian languages, and [in one case] about Afrikaans-speakers). Each author will, however, be taken as a case study not only in literary aesthetics, but also as one in literary politics: s/he will be introduced through the words of the Nobel Committee's statements. Why were these authors picked to be the voices of their generations, and why at their particular moments? The result is a dynamic image of how books REALLY work in an age of the mass and social media. Readings and Assignments will draw on the following list of authors: 1909: Selma Lagerlöf (Sweden) 1981: Elias Canetti (Hungary/Germany) 1912: Gerhard Hauptmann (Germany) 1991: Nadine Gordimer (South Africa - in 1928: Sigrid Undset (Norway) English, sometimes about Afrikaaners) 1929: Thomas Mann (Germany) 1999: Günter Grass (Germany), Cat and Mouse 1946: Hermann Hesse (Switzerland) 2004: Elfriede Jelinek (Austria) 1972: Heinrich Böll (Germany) 2009: Herta Müller (German born in Romania) • This course carries the Global Cultures Flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present. • This course carries the Writing Flag. Writing Flag courses are designed to give students experience with writing in an academic discipline. In this class, you can expect to write regularly during the semester, complete substantial writing projects, and receive feedback from your instructor to help you improve your writing. You will also have the opportunity to revise one or more assignments, and you may be asked to read and discuss your peers’ work. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from your written work. Assignments and Grading 6 one-page précis, each a close reading of text or pair of texts: 6 x 5% each = 30 % of grade 1 short paper (2-4 pp.), with possible rewrite) = 20% of grade 1 longer paper (8 pp.) (due in phases as indicated on syllabus, and completed byend of semester): 1) Abstract - 10%; 2) Bibliography - 10%; 3) Final Paper and resubmission of corrected work = 30% of final grade (50% total). LEARNING GOALS: By the end of the semester you will be able to: • research and locate book reviews and scholarly articles about literature and literary authors • understand how winners for literary prizes like the Nobel Prizes are chosen and what they mean for a writer's career • explain how and why literary texts are critiqued and/or appreciated • identify how an author establishes literary reputation • critique points of view in reviews and scholarly assessments • plan and execute close readings of passages in literary texts, showing how the author constructs her/his point of view • write a medium-length paper up to academic standards of writing and documentation, using text data to support arguments Nobel (Sur)Prizes: The Business of Literary Reputation Course Description: Spring 2018 GSD 340 (37770) / C L 323 (33205) / EUS 347 (35935) WEEK 1: 16, 18 January TU ICE STORM TH Introduction to the course LECTURE REFERENCE: • Foucault, "What is an Author?" • "Horizon of Expectation" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizons_of_Expectation> WEEK 2: 23, 25 January TU Introducing the Nobel Prize and How It works. READ: From <https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/> • Kjell Espmark, "Nobel Prize in Literature," <https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/literature/espmark/index.html> • Birgitta Lemmel, "The Nobel Foundation" <https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/history/le mmel/index.html> • "Statues of the Nobel Foundation" <https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_organizations/nobelfoundation/statutes.html#par1> READING GOAL: What role(s) is (are) the Prize playing/ should it play in various contexts, according to Nobel? Come in with an explanation and an example of how/what he means that. TH The Nobel Prize in Comparison READ: • Ingmar Björkstén, "The Literary Legacy of Alfred Nobel" • William Riggan, "The Swedish Academy and the Nobel Prize in Literature" • Look up the nominating procedure on the Nobel site. Comparisons: How other prizes work • David Lehman, "May the Best Author Win- Fat Chance" • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_Prize • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Book_Awards • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Book_Prize • http://stopyourekillingme.com/Awards/ READING GOAL: Read around in these other prizes; what kinds of interests do they serve and how are they like or not like the Nobel? Who profits from them, and how? You're looking for how these prizes serve what is called "the business of books" -- the way publishers and authors and the public interact for both fun and profit. One example: the Nobel is given for a career; many other book are for "best x of the year" -- what does that difference mean for what they say about the books and choice? WEEK 3: 30 January, 1 February TU Do We Approve of the Nobel? (in approximate order of interest, if you can't get through all; most are short) READ: • Specter, "Letter from Stockholm: The Nobel Syndrome" • Kirn, "The Stockholm Syndrome: Is the Nobel a Curse?" • Winegarten, "The Nobel Prize for Literature" • Vinciguerra, "The Nobels that Some Felt Weren't so Dynamite" • Ball, " I Nominated Bob Dylan . ." • Love, "How I Won the Nobel Prize (for Naguib Mahfouz)" RECOMMENDED • Gibbs, "Prize and Prejudice" (on Soyinka's prize-- one of the few to non- European authors) • Washbourne, "Translation, Littérisation, and the Nobel Prize for Literature" • Lovell, "Gao Xingjian, the Nobel Prize, and Chinese Intellectuals READING GOAL: These are essays by insiders denouncing the Nobel Prize. Figure out some of their reasons; take stock of what they say in comparison to the "official party line." LECTURE FOLLOWUP: transitioning into systematic analysis TH Günter Grass: Case Study 1 READ: • Nobel Committee Statement • Grass' Nobel lecture • Pryce-Jones, "The Failure of Günter Grass: Another Nobel bomb." READING GOAL: These three texts represent the three voices present in any Nobel Prize situations. The Nobel Committee makes up a "reading" of the career; the author complies or resists; the critics respond with "yay" or "yuck." Figure out where they're coming from? What are they really trying to do, aside from give/ approve of a prize? LECTURE FOLLOWUP: what they're covering up (using author history) -- the place of research in understanding this project/ WEEK 4: 6, 8 February TU Grass, The Tin Drum READ: • Plot summary: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tin_Drum • The novel, plus pp. 1-41 in pdf (chapters 1-4) • WATCH the movie trailer <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ewzWkFZOFk> READING GOAL: Come in ready to compare what you read in the novel (and/or see in the trailer) and what the Nobel committee sees in Grass. This is the ground for one kind of synthetic précis. Note that you and a partner will have to finish this project and turn it in in subsequent classes. CLASS FOLLOWUP: Looking at the first pages of TD in order to set up an analytic précis about the novel's narrator's point of view -- how it's built (in this case, about Oskar telling his own retrospective story and what that building strategy ("narrative point of view") suggests it's about. TH Grass, Cat and Mouse READ: • Short Grass biography (and the one in the Nobel site) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Grass> • Entire novella READING GOAL: Be prepared to compare the two boys in the story -- their life stories, goals, characteristics, etc. CLASS FOLLOWUP: How to set up an analytic précis of a prose text on the basis of information about characters. WEEK 5: 13, 15 February TU Grass, Dog Years, READ: • Part 1, pp. 1-72, all the "morning shifts" (note there are 33 of them. Why's that an important number?) Focus on the early ones if you can't read them all. • Plot summary: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Years_(novel)> • Historical background, Germany's "economic miracle": <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirtschaftswunder> READING GOAL: This is a very, very strange novel that connects post-World-War-II Germany (after 1945) with the pre-war era and with the Nazi era (1932-45). Come in with two or three examples from the text where two different time eras are connected. CLASS FOLLOWUP: We will take up the question of how to read a novel off of history and biography - - another variant of an analytic précis that focuses on the patterns within a novel that point to history rather than representing it directly.