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CS92PROD
Prizing the Book
ENGL 231
Spring 2012 not offered

What is the relationship of the book to literary prizes? In a larger sense, how is our sense of literary value and meaning driven by prizes and their role in the publishing industry? We will look at four major prizes, the Nobel, the Man Booker, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer, examining their histories and their choices. In each case, the histories will supplement an analysis of the most recent winners, including Doris Lessing, Orhan Pamuk, Kiran Desai, Denis Johnson, and Cormac McCarthy.

Essential Capabilities: Intercultural Literacy
The prize-winning texts are written by both men and women, and come from various cultures, languages, and nations: South Africa, Turkey, England, Germany, India, among others. In order to appreciate and analyze them, it is necessary to understand their cultures to some extent. What makes them all "the best"? Implicitly, these prize-winning texts are all being compared to each other according to some standard that both insists upon a cultural specificity and proposes the possibility of transcending national and linguistic differences in the interest of a global literature.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: None
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None

Last Updated on APR-20-2024
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