Literary prizes in German-speaking countries since 1990: functions and effects

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Alexandra Pontzen
• Subject Area: German Literary and Cultural Studies (Modern German Literature)
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 347223522

The project intends a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of literary prizes in the German speaking cultural area since 1990 examining its functions for and effects on the literary field, cultural policies, and the publishing world. As far as the literary field is concerned, it is assumed that prizes contribute to its diversification. Cultural policies use prizes in support of socio-cultural values such as understanding, peace, or inclusion. As for publishers, prizes mean additional reputation for authors and media attention to new market segments. The functions reinforce each other and give prizes a central role in the currently observed aesthetic turn of society (Reckwitz). In a received view prizes contribute to determining the hierarchy of genres and authors (Bourdieu). Hence the increase of prizes (more than 900 in 2016) would signify an inflationary loss of quality. The project, however, aims at exploring how new prizes acknowledge marginal areas as objects of autonomous literary judgment and contribute to ennoble new genres and works. Other prizes charge literature with socio-cultural values and support to perceive literature as part of the public sphere. Despite studies on distinctive prizes a full investigation of prizes and their impact is yet to be conducted. For quantitative research the project organizes a database that completes and corrects already existing data. It will be accessible for subsequent research through sustainable maintenance at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Case studies explore the branding of new genres, the connections between regional investments in prizes and economic incentives, the impact of prizes on the publishers' world as well as the publishers' attempts to influence the awarding of prizes by market strategies and lobbying.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants