El Deutscher Buchpreis en el contexto del campo cultural alemán

Abstract

The origin of literary prizes is linked to the way in which the different nations have configured and reaffirmed cultural identity. It is rather surprising however, that in a country like Germany, with such a historical, political and economic background, a major national prize with international scope as the Deutscher Buchpreis was only announced for the first time in 2004.It is for this reason that this particular literary prize will be the object of study of our work. This PhD thesis consists of an analysis of this award from a socio-economic-literary perspective based on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural field, a concept he developed mainly in his work The Rules of Art. Genesis and Structure of the Literary Field (1992). The final aim is to determine the position of the award as a cultural agent within this field, and its proximity to or distance from the pole of art or of the market. The place of the Deutscher Buchpreis in the literary field is, at the same time, defined according to the principle of structural homology: all cultural goods are organised based on the commercial versus non-commercial opposition; therefore, their respective fields of production and dissemination will be —structurally and functionally speaking— counterparts, and they will also stand in a relationship of structural homology with other fields, especially that of power, which brings together most consumers...