Planned topics

In the final version of Alfred Nobel’s will, dated 1895, the Swedish inventor and entrepreneur donated his fortune to fund prizes in five fields. Among them, as we know, there was also literature. The prize in this field was to be awarded to the person who created “the most outstanding work in the idealistic direction.” However, it is worth asking the question: why, in addition to – among others – physics and chemistry – did Nobel also take literature into account? It was probably not without significance that the inventor of dynamite tried his hand as a writer himself. At the end of his life, in 1891, he settled in San Remo and devoted himself to writing, composing, for example, a tragedy entitled Nemesis (dedicated to Beatrix Cenci). Nobel spoke several foreign languages and from an early age read the original works of Voltaire, Wordsworth, Shelley, Pushkin, Turgenev and Byron. The award quickly gained the status of the most prestigious one on the global plane. Is this still the case today? Bearing in mind the long and rather turbulent history of this award, we decided to dedicate this volume to the Nobel Prize in Literature. We invite you to reflect together on the origins of the Prize, its past and present impact on the world of literature, the work of writers who have been awarded the Nobel Prize (as well as those who, for various reasons, “narrowly missed” the Prize). In addition, we would like to discuss the decisions of the Nobel Committee, their artistic and non-artistic motivations, as well as the significance of the Prize itself for the fate of the writers’ careers of the reception.

Deadline for submissions: 28 February 2025