The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value

Examining film and literary prizes' geneses, history and the hoopla that accompanies them, English parses the many ways awards and award ceremonies have become an institutionalized ""game"" that relies on the condescension and outrage they provoke among critics and contenders alike. He confines his study primarily to writing and film awards, but these provide more than enough fodder for him to produce a remarkably clear anatomy of the way prizes shape their respective worlds; he sagely notes the approximately 4,500 feature films released annually compete for about 9,000 prizes, and while the number of books published every year still outpace number of awards, literary awards have multiplied exponentially since WWII. Some passages are dense with philosophical references and theoretical jargon, but English tempers them with case studies and pop culture examples, including a lively dissection of the perennially maligned Booker Prize, that make his discussion more accessible. Despite the book's narrow scope-it focuses almost solely on judges and the judged, neglecting the effect on consumers-the book brings a refreshing perspective to a conversation usually dominated by reflexive positions.