The Nobel Roll of Honor Comparing literatures and compiling lists of Nobel laureates in the early twentieth century

Sneis, Jørgen and Spoerhase, Carlos (2022): The Nobel Roll of Honor Comparing literatures and compiling lists of Nobel laureates in the early twentieth century. In: Orbis Litterarum, Vol. 78, No. 3: pp. 147-166

Abstract

This paper analyzes what may be called Olympic Internationalism as a framework for comparing literatures in the early twentieth century. Specifically, it analyzes the practice of tabulating information about the Nobel Prize-in the Swedish Academy, the international press, and repositories of general knowledge such as encyclopedias-and argues that the international circulation of such thin knowledge (Orsini) formed the very basis for that framework of comparison. This, it is further argued, played a crucial role in shaping the international perception of what world literature is and in making the Nobel Prize in Literature what it is: a globally acknowledged world prize.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 1
• Subjects: 400 Language > 400 Language
• ISSN: 0105-7510
• Language: English
• DFG: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - 491502892