{"id":457742,"date":"2020-10-26T13:20:41","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T17:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=457742"},"modified":"2025-09-19T10:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:20:06","slug":"teaching-complexities-of-nobel-prize-in-literature-457742","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/teaching-complexities-of-nobel-prize-in-literature-457742\/","title":{"rendered":"Teaching the complexities of the Nobel Prize in Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

English professor Bette London introduces students to Nobel-winning authors and the controversies surrounding the prize.<\/h2>\n

When American poet Louise Gl\u00fcck received the Nobel Prize in Literature<\/a> for 2020, she expressed astonishment\u2014and even a note of ambivalence. As she told the New York Times<\/em><\/a>, it \u201cseemed to be extremely unlikely that I would ever have this particular event to deal with in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complexities of the prize are nothing new to Bette London<\/a>, a professor of English<\/a> at the University of Rochester<\/a>. In fact, they\u2019re the basis of a course she\u2019s created\u2014ENG 380: Nobel Prize Literature\u2014as well as the subject of her current research.<\/p>\n

London has taught the course for 11 years, introducing it when Rochester launched its programs in literary translation. \u201cI thought it would be an excellent way to introduce students to outstanding but often unfamiliar literature from around the world, but I was also interested in the politics of prizes and the institutional structures that support them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The literature prize\u2019s suspension in 2018\u2014in response to the Swedish Academy\u2019s handling of sexual abuse allegations\u2014was only the latest incident in a long history of controversy surrounding the prize. Some of the debates over prize winners involve friction between ideas of national literature and what London calls the \u201cpotentially homogenizing concept of international literature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than 5 percent of the literature published in the United States each year is literature in translation\u2014and for many US readers, Nobel Prize\u2013winning authors provide their primary exposure to literature from around the world. \u201cThe Nobel Prize, with its visibility and prestige, is one of the major ways that international literature gets publicized and made available to large audiences that might not otherwise read it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The prize\u2019s renown belies its conceptual unwieldiness. It\u2019s unlimited by nation, genre, language, or year of publication. In his will, Alfred Nobel stipulated only that the award should go to the author who has \u201cbestowed the greatest benefit on mankind\u201d and created \u201cthe most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency.\u201d As often as not, the prize functions as a kind of lifetime achievement award, says London, a specialist in 19th- and 20th-century British literature whose research and teaching is oriented toward issues of authorship.<\/p>\n

The capaciousness of the Nobel Prize in Literature is part of what makes it, like the Nobel Peace Prize, sometimes a source of contention. There\u2019s a kind of public investment in both the literature and the peace prizes, and the accessibility of the accomplishments they recognize\u2014in contrast to physics research, for example\u2014can add to popular second-guessing of the academy\u2019s selections.<\/p>\n

London helps her students look at the Nobel Prize in Literature with a critical eye, considering how winning writers\u2019 works are viewed in their own country versus the authors\u2019 international reputations; what sorts of writers are chosen for the award and those who are never considered; and how to assess works that a reader might be able to read only in translation.<\/p>\n

The sheer variety of nations, languages, literary traditions, cultural contexts, and genres\u2014ranging from novels and poetry to journalistic oral histories (as in the case of the 2015 winner, Belarussian author Svetlana Alexievich) and songwriting (when Bob Dylan received the prize in 2016, for \u201chaving created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition\u201d)\u2014makes it impossible for any person to be an expert in the works that receive the prize, London says.<\/p>\n

She transforms that conundrum into an opportunity for her students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us,\u201d she tells them, \u201cwill be learners together.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the syllabus<\/h3>\n

ENG 380: Nobel Prize Literature
\nProfessor: Bette London, professor of English<\/p>\n

Required Texts (for fall 2020)<\/strong><\/h4>\n