The Inner Game of Literary Awards: A Critical Account of Prestige, Power, and the Market

It is incomplete for us to simply assess the award as 'fair' or 'biased'. The world's great thinkers have given us a great deal of insight into this. Pierre Bourdieu called awards 'symbolic capital', which increases a person's status in society. They are ‘cultural power’, as described by Michel Foucault, who believed that they shaped people's thoughts. And James F. English linked them to the market, placing them within the 'economy of prestige'. Taken together, all these perspectives make the award a 'cultural governance system'. It doesn't just reward excellence that has already been achieved; it creates a new definition in society, asking, "What is excellence?" This system determines what writing we consider great and what we consider mediocre. Therefore, a critical analysis of the award system is essential to understand the development of Nepali literature, its institutional structure, and the ups and downs over time. Without understanding this inner picture of the award, we can never fully understand the real state of Nepali literature and its politics.