The politics of literary prestige: prizes and Spanish American literature

The Politics of Literary Prestige: Prizes and Spanish American Literature provides the first comprehensive study of prizes for Spanish American literature. It uncovers how literary prizes awarded to Spanish American authors form a network. State-sponsored national prizes, international prizes, including the Premio Cervantes and the Nobel Prize for Literature, publisher-run prizes, including the Premio Biblioteca Breve, the Premio Herralde and the Premio Alfaguara, as well as the Premio Sor Juana for women authors, and the Premio Nezahualcoyotl for literatures in indigenous languages are all part of the prize network. These prizes connect with different political agenda across the Spanish speaking world enabling authors to occupy different roles from public intellectual to spokesperson to celebrity. Prizes are analysed from the point of view of the different stakeholders including organisers, publishers, authors, and critics. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including legal documents, publisher archives and YouTube channels, press coverage, and literary analysis, prizes are shown to be central to the creation of national and global identities, the brokering of international relations, and identity politics.