Literary Nationalism, Contemporary Canonicity, and the Unrealized Promise of the European Book Prize

For over two centuries, scholars of European nationalism have recognized the crucial role national bards and epics have played in forging “British,” “German,” “Polish,” and other European national identities. Despite the huge body of scholarly literature on this subject, however, EU culture ministers have consistently underutilized literature in their efforts to promote European cultural integration. My paper will make the case for creating more lucrative, highly-publicized prizes for European fiction, which might in turn lay the groundwork for a widely recognized and taught canon of twenty-first-century European literature. After briefly rehearsing the well-known story of how writers like Goethe, Mickiewicz, and Scott shaped European nationalisms, I will devote the first section of my paper to summarizing and critiquing the lackluster efforts to date to create a shared literature for modern Europeans. In particular, I will examine the brief but largely ineffectual history of the European Book Prize—a seven-year-old, €10,000 prize with admirable aims but inadequate funding and publicity to have a measurable impact on reading patterns in Europe. What is needed, I will argue, is a pan-European version of the Man Booker or Nobel Prize—an anxiously awaited, highly debated award that not only gets people reading books they might not have otherwise but establishes a canon of contemporary classics to be taught in courses across Europe.