The Economy of Prestige
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"[An] ingenious analysis of the history and social function of cultural prizes and awards." - Louis Menand, New Yorker "[An] elegant and entertaining book... English positions himself as an objective analyst, whose aim is not to criticize the awards industry but to see it as part of contemporary cultural practice. He is a witty, shrewd, and urbane observer." - Elaine Showalter, Times Literary Supplement "English dissects the dishy politics and tawdry tricks, but the author is after much bigger intellectual game. He wants to understand how the awards-biz carries our cultural currency, creating our shared investments in what is art... The Economy of Prestige is rich fare for anybody who has ever been trapped at an awards banquet. It ought to win a prize." - Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer"
Product Description
This is a book about one of the great untold stories of modern cultural life: the remarkable ascendancy of prizes in literature and the arts. Such prizes and the competitions they crown are almost as old as the arts themselves, but their number and power--and their consequences for society and culture at large--have expanded to an unprecedented degree in our day. In a wide-ranging overview of this phenomenon, James F. English documents the dramatic rise of the awards industry and its complex role within what he describes as an economy of cultural prestige.
Observing that cultural prizes in their modern form originate at the turn of the twentieth century with the institutional convergence of art and competitive spectator sports, English argues that they have in recent decades undergone an important shift--a more genuine and far-reaching globalization than what has occurred in the economy of material goods. Focusing on the cultural prize in its contemporary form, his book addresses itself broadly to the economic dimensions of culture, to the rules or logic of exchange in the market for what has come to be called "cultural capital." In the wild proliferation of prizes, English finds a key to transformations in the cultural field as a whole. And in the specific workings of prizes, their elaborate mechanics of nomination and election, presentation and acceptance, sponsorship, publicity, and scandal, he uncovers evidence of the new arrangements and relationships that have refigured that field.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's hard to be unaware of the proliferation of prizes and awards in our culture. Readers often divide between those who think that prizes are legitimate acknowledgements of talent, and those who - like Sir Walter Scott, one of the earliest dissenters - see them as an unwanted and ungentlemanly intrusion of commercialism and an inappropriate 'winner-takes-all' mentality into the arena of art. In 'The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards and the Circulation of Cultural Value', James English examines the by now global award regime and tries to put some flesh on the bare bones of prejudice.
Professor English focuses primarily on the Anglophone world, but ranges widely across cultural fields, taking in literature, film, music, the visual arts, sport and even pornography. For his conceptual framework, he draws heavily but not exclusively on the incisive and increasingly influential work of the French cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu - author of 'The Rules of Art', 'Distinction', and others.
Beginning with an overview that traces the history of the cultural prize into ancient times, English rapidly brings his narrative forward to the nineteenth century, traces the relatively slow growth of the prize regime during that period and then shows how growth became exponential after the foundation of the Nobel Prize. From being objects of scorn or disregard, cultural prizes and the institutions that administer them proliferate and gain in influence until by the end of the twentieth century they form a cultural economy that parallels, shadows, reinforces and conflicts with the commercial economy in which all cultural objects also necessarily take their place.
As English points out, by 2000 the number of prizes for film exceeded handily the number of feature films being made in any one year; the number of literary prizes had grown ten times faster than the number of new titles published annually. This is a phenomenon that is distinctively modern, and worthy of attention in its own right.
English manages the difficult trick of writing lucidly for the intelligent general reader without sacrificing academic rigour. Although there is much fascinating anecdote and historical detail, the real strength of the book lies in his dispassionate examination of the functioning of the prize regime and how it is inextricably woven into the texture of our culture in such a way that not even explicit parody - the Razzie awards, for example - or scandal - in the form of the now almost de rigeur accusations of bias and personal conflict that attend literary awards like the Booker - can derail. English rejects the stereotypical views that make so many journalistic discussions of the subject unproductive, and adduces a wealth of historical evidence and theoretical argument in support of a much more nuanced and persuasive account of the cultural function of the prize.
This is, so far as I am aware, the only substantial modern book-length study of its subject. Its merits have been widely recognised elsewhere: and in an irony that the author no doubt appreciated, it was declared 'New York Magazine Best Academic Book of the Year'. It is better than that: a fine book by any standards. I recommend it to anybody who is interested in how the worlds of commerce and art collide.
Professor English focuses primarily on the Anglophone world, but ranges widely across cultural fields, taking in literature, film, music, the visual arts, sport and even pornography. For his conceptual framework, he draws heavily but not exclusively on the incisive and increasingly influential work of the French cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu - author of 'The Rules of Art', 'Distinction', and others.
Beginning with an overview that traces the history of the cultural prize into ancient times, English rapidly brings his narrative forward to the nineteenth century, traces the relatively slow growth of the prize regime during that period and then shows how growth became exponential after the foundation of the Nobel Prize. From being objects of scorn or disregard, cultural prizes and the institutions that administer them proliferate and gain in influence until by the end of the twentieth century they form a cultural economy that parallels, shadows, reinforces and conflicts with the commercial economy in which all cultural objects also necessarily take their place.
As English points out, by 2000 the number of prizes for film exceeded handily the number of feature films being made in any one year; the number of literary prizes had grown ten times faster than the number of new titles published annually. This is a phenomenon that is distinctively modern, and worthy of attention in its own right.
English manages the difficult trick of writing lucidly for the intelligent general reader without sacrificing academic rigour. Although there is much fascinating anecdote and historical detail, the real strength of the book lies in his dispassionate examination of the functioning of the prize regime and how it is inextricably woven into the texture of our culture in such a way that not even explicit parody - the Razzie awards, for example - or scandal - in the form of the now almost de rigeur accusations of bias and personal conflict that attend literary awards like the Booker - can derail. English rejects the stereotypical views that make so many journalistic discussions of the subject unproductive, and adduces a wealth of historical evidence and theoretical argument in support of a much more nuanced and persuasive account of the cultural function of the prize.
This is, so far as I am aware, the only substantial modern book-length study of its subject. Its merits have been widely recognised elsewhere: and in an irony that the author no doubt appreciated, it was declared 'New York Magazine Best Academic Book of the Year'. It is better than that: a fine book by any standards. I recommend it to anybody who is interested in how the worlds of commerce and art collide.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's an eloquent, well written and well researched book but ultimately it descends into the standard cliche formula that people/academics doing topics like media/cultural/gender studies adopt. That is, long semantic discussions and attempts to (re)define everyday words which have pretty concrete or common sense definitions in the first place, pretentious references to all the predictable people like Bourdieu, Derrida, tiring parts on "culture", abstract things, symbols etc. And all that sometimes in chapters starting with a quote from Pearl Jam or similar. Finally, there is little more to add to what any observant TV viewer or newspaper reader has understood about awards and prizes.
Ok, it's obvious I don't enjoy that type of book and perhaps I'm a bit biased (and I should say I couldn't read more than half), but considering the topic, this could have been a good book if it just narrated a rough history of awards with memorable or interesting moments and consquences, without the intellectual aspirations. Alternatively, it could have gone the other way, and analyse the economy properly (funding of award institutions, tickets/public support, changes in revenues of winners or losers, correlations of exposure and sales, job offers/contracts, money value of the prizes, inheritance issues, quantitative long term analyses etc). Needless to say the little there is of all that concrete stuff is buried in the abstract talking and unnecessary words.
Ok, it's obvious I don't enjoy that type of book and perhaps I'm a bit biased (and I should say I couldn't read more than half), but considering the topic, this could have been a good book if it just narrated a rough history of awards with memorable or interesting moments and consquences, without the intellectual aspirations. Alternatively, it could have gone the other way, and analyse the economy properly (funding of award institutions, tickets/public support, changes in revenues of winners or losers, correlations of exposure and sales, job offers/contracts, money value of the prizes, inheritance issues, quantitative long term analyses etc). Needless to say the little there is of all that concrete stuff is buried in the abstract talking and unnecessary words.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
first rate work of cultural sociology
13 April 2008
Format:Hardcover
This book is a great work in cultural sociology and addresses one of the key questions of the field, how different works and authors are consecrated and furthermore what consecration means. In addition to a very thorough discussion of the mechanics of awards (including the widely underestimated labor that goes into judging them) and his history of cultural awards -- from their 18th and 19th century academie precursors, through the Nobels, and into the 1970s explosion of televised awards spectacles -- English hammers away at the connection between awards and the romantic ideology of artistic charisma and argues convincingly that awards reinforce this ideology through providing an antagonist for awards bashers and awards refusers. In addition to all that, it's entertaining (for an academic book) as when, for instance he shows how the various greater and lesser awards for pornography precisely ape and parallel the greater and lesser awards for legitimate film.
There is a fair amount of theory in the book, but it's not the sort of nihilistic and excessively abstract theory we've come to associate with the humanities since the 1980s. This may still be distracting to lay readers who simply want to read about how awards work, but as an academic (whose biases tend towards empiricism) I found that it not only helped draw connections between awards and broader social trends but the theory is beautifully exposited and much more accessible than in many of the works English is drawing upon. For instance, if you contrast this book with Bourdieu's (excellent but moderately dense) The Field of Cultural Production, you'll appreciate that English is actually making these ideas about as clear and accessible as is possible. Seen in this light the book not only describes and theoretically situates awards, but parts of it could serve as a solid introduction to theories like new class, post-industrial society, or cultural capital.
Also of possible interest is that similar themes are addressed in Hollywood Highbrow: From Entertainment to Art (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)
There is a fair amount of theory in the book, but it's not the sort of nihilistic and excessively abstract theory we've come to associate with the humanities since the 1980s. This may still be distracting to lay readers who simply want to read about how awards work, but as an academic (whose biases tend towards empiricism) I found that it not only helped draw connections between awards and broader social trends but the theory is beautifully exposited and much more accessible than in many of the works English is drawing upon. For instance, if you contrast this book with Bourdieu's (excellent but moderately dense) The Field of Cultural Production, you'll appreciate that English is actually making these ideas about as clear and accessible as is possible. Seen in this light the book not only describes and theoretically situates awards, but parts of it could serve as a solid introduction to theories like new class, post-industrial society, or cultural capital.
Also of possible interest is that similar themes are addressed in Hollywood Highbrow: From Entertainment to Art (Princeton Studies in Cultural Sociology)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Should win a prize
20 May 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This exceptional book about the culture of prizes is a box of surprises. What appears a limited and straight forward subject at first glance unfolds, under English's subtle and skillfull ministrations, to have far reaching and complex implications on how we use, confer value on and even think about cultural products in our global society. Written with wit, precision and clarity, this book makes one think about the dissemination and propagation of cultural prestige in original and relevant ways. Best of all, it is continually entertaining. Now if there were only a prize for books about prizes...
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Prize-winning book ...?
5 Mar 2008
Format:Hardcover
There's a lot of good dish here, especially on the Booker Prize and Toni Morrison. English is a smart guy, and he writes with great fluency and brio. He has read everything there is on the world of prizes, and he draws many interesting connections.
I have to admit, though, that in places I found the extensive theoretical scaffolding of the book to be tedious and somewhat overdone. At the end of the day this book is best suited for those with an academic interest in "cultural criticism."
I have to admit, though, that in places I found the extensive theoretical scaffolding of the book to be tedious and somewhat overdone. At the end of the day this book is best suited for those with an academic interest in "cultural criticism."
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