The Nobel Prize and the Idea of World Literature

Horace Engdahl

The Nobel Prize and the Idea of World Literature

Horace Engdahl

The Nobel Prize in literature is one out of five great awards instituted by the Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel and distributed yearly since 1901.Three of the other prizes are given for scientific achievements and one for contributions to the struggle for peace in the world.The literature prize is generally considered to be the finest distinction that can be conferred on an author.The welcome news that the Chinese publishing houseYilin will put out a series of books by Nobel laureates is a further confirmation of its importance.

Is the writing of the Nobel Prize winners different from that of other good writers？Sound scepticism answers：why should it be？In what way would a book be altered because its author has a new entry in his CV？But since a literary oeuvre consists not only in a body of texts but also in the mental preconditions for their reading，something undeniably changes as a result of the award.

Ivan Bunin，the Russian émigré writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1933，described in his diary how after receiving the celebrated telephone call from Stockholm he was assailed by a counter-reaction，an instinctive suspicion.Walking home to his little house in Grasse，Provence，he began to have doubts and to believe it was all self-suggestion.But on approaching the house，at that time of day normally nestling dark in deserted olive groves，he saw lights in every window and was brought back to reality.Everyone was there，waiting to congratulate him，and“〔a〕quiet sorrow settled on my heart，”he writes.He understood that his life was forever changed and his previous existence unattainable.It was the same for his writing.From that moment on，his work would be regarded as belonging to an elite order and ranked accordingly，whatever one might think of the order itself.His books still risked not being read but Bunin no longer risked being forgotten.The Nobel lamp would forever burn in the window of his authorship，like a quiet welcome.

Because of the attention that the literature prize attracts across the world and because of itsprestige，the Nobel laureates have inevitably come to be seen as forming a kind of canon，which has provoked the critical reproach that many of the twentieth century’s greatest writers are missing from the list，that it includes too few women，too few non-Europeans and too many mediocrities. I believe that the Academy members who commenced work in that first Nobel Committee of 1901 would have been terrified had they realized what they were about to set in train.Certainly in those first few years no one thought of the prize as a means to define a canon.Nor was the concept of a canon applied to contemporary literature.Alfred Nobel’s will talks of rewarding a literary work published in the previous year and obviously refers to a single book，not a body of writing.The donor clearly intended the literature prize to act in the present rather than to crown masters for all time. But the Swedish Academy exploited the wording of the of the Nobel Foundation’s statutes，stating that the phrase“during the preceding year”should be understood principally as a demand for the continued viability of a work；older works may therefore be rewarded，but“only if their significance has not become apparent until recently.”（Statutes of the Nobel Foundation，§2.）As things turned out，it immediately became a principle to consider the writing of a lifetime rather than an individual work.From the Academy’s point of view，this was wise.Carrying out Alfred Nobel’s orders to the letter would have greatly diminished the importance of the prize.

If canonization，then，was not the purpose of the prize，it was nevertheless apparent that the donor wanted it to have international reach.Literary prizes are generally limited to a single country or language.Why did Alfred Nobel bequeath to the Swedish Academy the daunting task of choosing prize-winners from the literature of the entire world?Nobel was a cosmopolitan with business interests in many countries.He spoke and corresponded in five languages.He is known to have said：“My country is where I work，and I work everywhere.”But this is only half an explanation.Nobel’s idea of literature was founded on a particular intellectual tradition.When working on his last will，Nobel was clearly under the influence of the famous passage from Goethe’s conversations with Eckermann where the term“Weltliteratur”appeared for the first time.The quotation goes as follows：“Nationalliteratur will jetzt nicht viel sagen，die Epoche der Weltliteratur ist an der Zeit，und jeder muss jetzt dazu wirken，diese epoche zu beschleunigen”（National literature has no great meaning today；the time has come for world literature，and each and every one of us should work to hasten the day）.

In his will，Nobel declared that it was his“express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatsoever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates.”（Statues of the Nobel Foundation，§1.）The prize is intended as an award for individual achievements and is not given to writers as representatives of nations or languages nor of any social or ethnic group or gender. There is nothing in the will about striving for a“just”distribution of the prize，whatever that could be.Such an aim would clearly contradict the donor’s philosophy.What was vital for him was that the prize-winning author should have contributed to humanity’s improvement（“conferred the greatest benefit to mankind”），not that the prize should flatter the self-esteem of one or other human herd.

The deficiency of a strictly nation-based concept of literature is evident from a mere glance at the list of prize-winners from 1901 to the present day.For several of the winners，exile，whether internal or external，has been the inescapable condition of their work.The reading public and literary opinion-makers in their home countries have often preferred other writers to those selected by the A－cademy.In authoritarian or strongly traditional societies laureates have often been perceived as out－siders or dissidents.

Great authors are quite often nomadic beings，hard to classify ethnically or linguistically.It is striking how many prize-winners，especially in recent years，have had uncertain or problematic nationalities.Beckett was an Irishman who wrote in French，Canetti a British subject of Jewish origin from Bulgaria whose literary language was German.The Brodsky who won the prize no longer called himself Iosif but Joseph and was bilingual as a poet.Nelly Sachs belongs to German literature but not to Germany-nor to Sweden，where she spent most of her life.Singer was anchored in Yiddish and in English，and his imaginative recreation of the vanished Jewish culture of Eastern Europe presupposed the distance of a foreign shore and a modern，secular society.

When Naipaul was given the prize in 2001，the British foreign service at first refused to accept that the award had gone to Great Britain.Congratulations were extended to Trinidad!But at the time Naipaul was born on that island，it was still part of the British empire and Naipaul，who moved to England early in life，has never been anything but a British subject，in recent times even knighted by the Queen.Despite this，the British ambassador in Stockholm only reluctantly and belatedly accepted this intensely English writer as a compatriot.Likewise，the Chinese government in 2000 announced that Gao Xingjian was not a Chinese writer and congratulated France on the prize.

Going further back in the list of literature laureates，one finds the above-quoted Ivan Bunin，a stateless refugee with a Nansen passport.It has been my experience as a permanent secretary，when looking at the reactions to the announcement of the prize，that the hostile comments usually come from the writer’s own country.Great authors are a great annoyance.

The Birth of Literature

Nobel’s will and the statutes of the Nobel Foundation assume that the meaning of the word‘literature’is commonly known and uncontroversial.The only explanation comes in a supplementary paragraph not found in the will，stating that the term“l(fā)iterature”shall comprise“not only belles-lettres but also other writings which，by virtue of their form and style，possess literary value.”（Statutes of the Nobel Foundation，The term belles-lettres（“sch?ne Literatur”）was coined by August Wilhelms Schlegel to describe texts created with an artistic intention as opposed to writing with a practical or theoretical aim.Thus the Nobel process employs an approximately two-hundredyear-old concept of literature that has only fairly recently been adopted outside the cultural sphere of Europe，even though today it seems to have achieved currency in most parts of the world.The concept is nonetheless neither obvious nor very ancient.

Older definitions of literature often focus on written documents having the character of“utterances answering to high standards，”that is，literary monuments of a canonical character.These are texts of normative content and exemplary style，not“imaginative literature”as we understand it. Thus，for example，poetry in the language of the Koran in Arab countries is still in part a demonstration of the ability to use literary Arabic（arabía），a language no one speaks as a mother tongue.

According to authorities on the subject，the Arabic concept adab carries much the same sense as eighteenth-century French literature：learning and good breeding.The current Japanese concept of literature came into being in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.At the time，Genji monogatari，for example，was elevated to the status of a literary masterpiece.The generic word bun-gaku came into existence earlier but had another meaning.During the Meji period（1868-1912），it was reinterpreted on the model of Germany’s“Nationallitteratur.”Previously，what were known in Europe as literary genres had been bundled together with calligraphy，painting，tea ceremonies，the shamisen and so on as yugei（leisure activities），the antithesis of bugei（the arts of war）.It should not be forgotten that there was a time when similar classifications were accepted in our part of the world.I am thinking，for example，of the passage about pyrotechnics in the discussion of the fine arts in Claude Perrault’s Parallèle des anciens et des modernes（1688）.We once used to call the arts“embellishments to life.”

A concept of literature that encompassed prose fiction appeared in Europe as late as the 1700-1800s，against some resistance.In other parts of the world，opposition was greater and more successful.Traditional Chinese poetic theory condemned fiction（Kaikkonen 39）.A sharp distinction was made between books intended for the educated elite and books intended for the masses. Chinese wenxue encompassed poetry and scholarly essayism，which was associated with reflection and considered to be based on real experience.Fiction，on the other hand，was a lower category.The classification has a misogynist undertone.Folkloric sagas of the kind recounted by old women were especially despised.It would take a considerable time before it became possible to produce a coherent account of what we call the history of Chinese literature.The first was apparently written by a Japanesecritic.TheMandarinclass，China’s literati，existed for a thousand years and the influence of that tradition is still tangible，though perhaps waning.Today，after a century of exchange with Western literature，Chinese writers of both sexes are proud to present themselves as novelists.

Criteria Behind the Nobel Prize in Literature

Cultures other than the Western have generally based their understanding of literature on poetry.In the West，however，Aristotle’s influence meant that the idea of mimesis became decisive for the understanding of what was literary，which led to the inclusion of other genres such as drama and narrative poetry.The Nobel Prize for literature basically rests on the Western concept of literature that was given its final shape by the German romanticists of the early 19th century.But thanks to the paragraph in the Nobel Statutes allowing nonfiction writing of literary value to be considered for the award，a relic of an older definition is preserved in the regulations.This clause has been exploited five times，twice for philosophers and three timesforhistorians，ofwhomBergsonand Churchill respectively are the best known.This archaism may yet prove to be prophetic in a climate where the position of poetry and fiction is in relative decline and reportage，travel writing，witness accounts，autobiography and the essay seem to be gaining importance in the field of literature.

It is harder to tell what criteria of literary quality Alfred Nobel thought should guide the choices of the prize-givers.All he says in the words of the will is that the prize should go to“the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction.”No one has been able to establish indisputably what Nobel meant by“ideal direction.”

When modernism triumphed in Western literature or at least in literary criticsm，the Swedish Academy came under attack for upholding outdated ideals and for being blind to the true innovators of contemporary literature.The members of the Academy，however，did not believe that it was compatible with the spirit of Alfred Nobel’s will to award writers whose work did not have a broad appeal.In awarding，from 1947 and on，the“greatprecursors”of modernism，authors such as Gide，T.S.Eliot，and Faulkner，the Academy abandoned its resistance to elitism and moved closer to the opinion of the intellectuals.In the list of laureates of later years you will find both exclusive masters，who write for the happy few and on the other hand writers with a large and world-wide readership.

Toward a World Literature

In the current discussion of world literature，the idea of a centre and a periphery plays a prominent role.The Nobel Prize is generally seen as an expression of literary values characteristic of the nucleus of the Western cultural sphere.

But from the viewpoint granted by working with the Nobel Prize，the literary system appears far from unified and centralized.Every nation seems to have its own idea of world literature. There is no neutral ground or transnational vision shared by all.It seems improbable that the major strands of literary creativity in the world should ever unite into a global and unified mega-literature.

Taking part in the act of choosing Nobel laureates encourages a different idea of“world literature”.Rather than designating the bulk of literary works existing world-wide，it comes to signify a context into which we hope to bring the winning oeuvre：a community-in-progress，with translation as its universal language.Gradually，the national literatures of the world are tied together and made to act upon one another.In this process，the Nobel Prize no doubt serves as a catalyst.

Horace Engdahl，Member of the Swedish Academy and of its Nobel Committee。賀拉斯·恩達(dá)爾，瑞典學(xué)院終身院士、諾貝爾委員會(huì)成員。

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