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The Nobel Prize in Literature – just another blast of our celebrity culture?
Every mid-October some unsuspecting writer gets a phone call. It’s the secretary of the Nobel Prize committee! Overnight, an averagely respected author is turned into a global literary celebrity. What does this mean for the author, and is it different to other kinds of media fame?
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Günter Grass will speak to us from beyond the grave
Germany’s most consistently controversial writer, the Nobel-winning Günter Grass, has died at the age of 87.
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How to read the real Elena Ferrante
Do novels need authors?
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As Man Booker winner Paul Beatty is about to find out, literary celebrity changes everything
Paul Beatty has won the Man Booker prize, becoming the first American to win the award since it was opened up to authors outside the Commonwealth in 2013. Most won’t yet have heard of the 54-year-old author of The Sellout, a satire of US racial politics. Because if one thing united this year’s shortlist, it was the lack of literary celebrity.
Rebecca Braun
Dr Braun is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster. She directs the interdisciplinary research hub, 'Authors & the World' and is also Associate Director of the University's Institute for Social Futures.