The winners and history of the Booker Prize

The awarding of the Booker Prize is one of the most important annual events in the literary world. It has been awarded since 1969 to the best English-language works from the countries of the Commonwealth, Ireland and Zimbabwe. However, this rule existed until 2013.

In 2014, the prize for the first time refused to bind to geography. For one of the most prestigious awards in the world, in fact, an entire era has come to an end. Therefore, it is possible to sum up the "totals" of this era, before the Booker Prize of 2014 erased all national characteristics.

History

Booker Prize in Literature Was organized and first awarded in 1969. The initiator and author of the idea of the award was an English businessman and philanthropist Sir Michael Harris Kane. His corporation Booker Group - the most prominent player in the British service industry, earning millions of pounds. She became the sponsor of the literary prize, which was named in her honor.

The first prize, except for prestige, carried in itself the sum of five thousand pounds sterling. In the future, cash reward went on increasing - ten, fifteen and twenty thousand.

In 2002, another business giant joined the sponsorship of the Booker Prize, namely Man Groop (financial services). This strengthened her prestige and made it possible to significantly increase the amount of money given - up to fifty thousand pounds sterling. Since that moment the official name of the award is The Man Booker Prize.

As already mentioned above, from 2014 the event comes out of the borders of the former colonies of Britain and opens for writers of any citizenship. Condition one - the book should at least once be published in English.

Determination of the winner

To find among the many-sided and versatile modern literature is something uniquely better, definitely, quite difficult. The process of handing the Booker Prize Divided into several stages.

The first includes a committee meeting of literary critics, publishers, agents and librarians; Also, the presence of representatives of both sponsoring companies is mandatory. These people approve a jury of five people (also prominent figures in the literary sphere) and a list of books, the maximum for which is a hundred novels.

The jury for a month is the so-called "long-list" (twenty-five works), and then - the "short-list" (six). Among the six best novels, future laureates of the Booker Prize for Literature are chosen.

Of course, getting into the number of the best in both sheets is already prestigious and says a lot about the quality of the author's work.

The first owner

For the first time the Booker Prize was presented to Percy Howard Newby, a teacher from Cairo.

His novel "For this it is necessary to answer" tells about a briton named Taunrow who came to Egypt on personal matters.

However, he fell into the country of the pyramids at the wrong time, namely during the Suez crisis, when England and France could not forgive Egypt the nationalization of the Suez Canal and unleashed a war. Townrow faces many problems, the hatred of local residents. As an Englishman, he gets paid for the entire policy of the former British Empire.

It is the fault of the common man in the colonial past of his country that is the main issue of the novel. For its relevance and a poignant syllable that permeated the book, Newby was awarded.

JM Coetzee

In 1999, the South African linguist and writer John Maxwell Coetzee became the first person to receive such a prestigious award twice. Before him, the winners of the Booker Prize had never been honored to be marked twice, but often fell into long or shorts in different years.

The first prize was given to Coetzee in 1983, when his acute social novel, The Life and Times of Michael C., was published. In it, a young man with a sick mother is trying to find shelter from military operations on the farm, escaping from Cape Town. The main theme of history is the life of a person in society, his responsibility to him, as well as the responsibility of society to the individual. Coetzee asks a question about where the personal space of the human soul ends and its "social significance" begins. It goes without saying that the topic of the character's collision with the global globalization of the world could not be overlooked by the Booker Prize committee; Especially at the end of the 20th century.

The second award, a South African writer earned for the novel "Infamy". Later the work was filmed with John Malkovich in the title role. The novel reveals to us the story of a professor expelled from the university for having sexual intercourse with a "color" student of a professor who goes to the farm to his daughter. After many years of government policies to separate the "white" and "black" South Africa is going through difficult times. The main character is to find out - are there so many differences between the indigenous people and the descendants of the colonists?

The acute theme literally standing on the blade of the knife rushed to the extreme from the extreme, suggesting the reader to see all the problems of racial relationships in South Africa: from hatred of all "niggers" to the full realization that all people, despite the color of their skin, are equal.

In 2003, Coetzee also received the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Peter Carrey

The second person whom the Booker Prize visited twice was Australian Peter Carrey. He was able to conquer it for the second time in 2002.

The first award he received in 1988 for the novel "Oscar and Lucinda," telling of a crazy bet between the priest and the owner of the glass factory. After all, if Oscar can translate intact and install a glass church in Australia, he will receive the entire state of Lucinda. What for? In order to give it to the poor and disadvantaged, or to let them down at the card table? In 1997 the novel was filmed.

Next time, Carrie falls into the "Booker Prize Winners" list because of her novel "The True History of the Kelly Gang", in which he tries to convey to the mass reader the story of the ambiguous character of Australian folklore. After all, historians are still arguing - who was the legendary Ned Kelly, famed as a "noble robber" and owner of a stylish leather armor - a simple killer or fighter against the British crown? In his novel, Carrie tries to give an answer and comes to a compromise version: Ned Kelly was both. Starting as a simple bandit, he more and more noticed the suffering of the Australians under the oppression of Her Majesty's police until finally declaring a personal war against the British Empire.

Eleanor Catton

The 2013 Booker Prize was awarded to the New Zealand writer Eleonore Cutton. It is noteworthy that she has set two records at once related to this award.

First, Cotton became the youngest of all prize winners. At the time of delivery, she was "only" twenty-eight. Secondly, her novel "The Lights" at the moment remains the most voluminous work (eight hundred thirty-two pages), which received this award.

The protagonist, Walter Moody, arrives in New Zealand during the reign of British Queen Victoria. It was then that the gold rush began there, and a small island was remembered by the seekers of easy profit. However, it is not gold mines that have to be dealt with by Walter - he is drawn into finding out the circumstances of a series of mysterious and mystical murders that frightened all New Zealanders.

The main theme for the creative search for Catton was the issue of excitement, lust for money and the need for money. The writer as if cleverly winks to us from the pages of the book, where there are people ready for anything for the sake of wealth, success - any sins for them is not a crime, if this leads them to the cherished goal. "Well, have we changed a lot here?" - as Eleanor Cotton asks.

Richard Flanagan

"The narrow road to the far north" was written by the author Richard Flanagan for twelve years, and as a result, the Booker Prize of 2014 was left to him.

The novel tells of a Japanese prisoner of war camp during the Second World War, where the inmates were forced to build one of the most "greedy" railways from Thailand to Burma. The creation of this path killed hundreds of prisoners, not all of them returned home.

The book first plunges us into the terrible world of the terror of the camp, and then gives an opportunity to see what happened to those who survived; As they still stop their journey in this world very soon - most often suicide. How overseers hide from justice.

However, in all this, Flanagan tries to find at least something if not good, then compelling to live. This book is about comradeship, about compassion and drawing people together grief.

Branches

Thanks to the efforts of Michael Harris Kane, the Booker Prize has extended to other countries. Only three so-called "branches" saw the light, as a result of the work done by Booker Groop. The International Booker Prize is awarded every two years from 2005. Since 2007, the Asian Booker Prize has also appeared.

And since 1992 there is also the "Russian Booker", as Kane's desire to help the country, once flooded by great writers.

The question of the relevance of these branches and their future activities after changing conditions for the winners remains open.

Results

It is difficult to imagine what the consequences will be from changing the conditions for receiving the award, and what the Booker Prize will turn into. Winners have always been closely and invariably connected with Britain, with its themes and topical issues. The history of the relationship of the British Empire with the colonies also rose more than once among them.

However, changes always go for the better. This is shown by the Booker Prize 2014 - laureates All the same, despite the setting, they say the same thing. On the importance of human relations, that in any case it is necessary to remain a person. And preferably, a person with high moral qualities. This is exactly what real literature should show, regardless of the country in which it was born.