Main entry:

English, James F., 1958- author.

Title & Author:

The Economy of Prestige : Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value / James F. English.

Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2005.

Description:

xii, 409 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 22 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 346-390) and index.
[Table of Contents] -- Introduction: Prizes and the Study of Culture -- I. THE AGE OF AWARDS -- 1. Prize Frenzy -- 2. 4t Precursors of the Modern Cultural Prize -- 3. The Logic of Proliferation -- 4. Prizes as Entertainment -- II. PECULIARITIES OF THE AWARDS INDUSTRY -- 5. The Making of a Prize -- 6. Taste Management -- 7. Trophies as Objects of Production and Trade -- III. THE GAME AND ITS PLAYERS -- 8. Scandalous Currency -- 9. The New Rhetoric of Prize Commentary -- 10. Strategies of Condescension, Styles of Play -- IV. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY OF CULTURAL PRESTIGE -- 11. The Arts as International Sport -- 12. The New Geography of Prestige -- 13. Prizes and the Politics of World Culture -- APPENDIX A: The Rise of the Prize -- APPENDIX B: Prizes and Commerce -- APPENDIX C: Winner Take All: Six Lists -- Notes -- Index.

Summary:

"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 originated 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 that which 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 this field." -- Dust Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Table of contents

ISBN:

0674018842 (hardback)
9780674018846 (hardback)
0674030435 (paperback)
9780674030435 (paperback)

Subject:

Awards Economic aspects.
Literary prizes Economic aspects.
Art Awards Economic aspects.
Culture Economic aspects.
Intellectual life Economic aspects.
Popular culture Economic aspects.
Cultural industries.
Value.
Prestige.
Cultural industries Economic aspects.
Prix et récompenses Aspect économique.
Prix littéraires Aspect économique.
Art Prix et récompenses Aspect économique.
Culture Aspect économique.
Culture populaire Aspect économique.
Vie intellectuelle Aspect économique.
Industries culturelles Aspect économique.
Valeur.
Industries culturelles.
value (economic concept)
20.10 art and society: general.
Kulturindustrie
Kulturpreis
Literaturpreis
Literatuurprijzen.
Economische aspecten.
Cultural studies.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 244125
Call No.: BIB 173812
Status: Available