Paper short abstract:

This essay explores how literary prizes and film festivals are central to the market of cultural exchange and determine what enters the canons of World Literature and Cinema.

Paper long abstract:

This essay explores the ways the international literary and cinematic spaces are formed and maintained through methods of circulation and production and through a chorus of critical voices that seek to curate and select literary and cinematic texts worthy of inclusion under the World Literature or World Cinema rubrics. More specifically it will examine the role international literary prizes like the Nobel Prize in Literature, the International Man Booker Prize, etc. have in selecting which texts travel where. Further, this essay will explore the role film festivals - industries in their own right - play in determining the travel trajectories of films, their capacity to be accessed internationally through the availability or absence of subtitles, DVD zoning practices, etc. For example, research on the space Eastern European literature and film is given in international centers of cultural capital shows that literary and cinematic circulation from this region reflects the dialogic and representational character of the cultural exchange. The Eastern European stories that circulate and garner critical attention in cultural capitals, mirror the paranoia of the Cold War, and engage in the kinds of representations that could garner an audience in important cultural centers. Literary prizes and film festivals are central to the market of cultural exchange and determine what enters the canons of World Literature and Cinema, what stories have voices beyond their borders, and the ways in which these narratives change through processes of translation and through critical works.