Re: European Prize in Literature
It's all a good idea, but I'm rather afraid that momentum will be lost in a huge orgy of bureaucracy. The danger is also that countries will field lowest common denominator books which fit into a kind of EuroLit slot.
As there are so many languages involved, the task of translation, so that judges can get a fair look at particular books, will be huge. Because for someone to judge a book fairly, they really ought to be able to have access to it in their mother-tongue.
Another problem is that there are always pushy people who know how to get their novel or whatever selected. (This already occurs with so many prizes at national level.)
People appear to be mesmerised by prizes, awards and competitions. In my opinion, what is needed much more is the sensible and sensitive promotion of literature, especially in such introverted countries as the UK. An award tend to focus on the winner and the runners up from the shortlist. What is needed is the education of readers right across the board, so they can discover what is available from various parts of Europe.
Such education is done more effectively by more limited initiatives, such as the promotion of Czech literature by Waterstones, linking up with Twisted Spoon and other presses.
Another angle: what effect will Verhaeghen's win have on the promotion of Belgian literature as a whole in the UK and the USA? I doubt if there will be a knock-on effect, given the fact that many people will find Verhaeghen unreadable and therefore extrapolate, without reading any further literature from Belgium, that those bloody Belgs all write incomprehensible Continental stuff.
Nor do we need another "personality", like Brigitte Bardot for baby seals, to give literature a celebrity face, as Ambassador. This too is a typically Eurocratic way of thinking.
It will all end up as jobs for the boys, with those who are best at manœuvring themselves into positions of power deciding upon the Eurocanon for Literature.
To sum up, I see a lot of hidden reefs in this project which, on the surface of it, is a good one.
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