The World from the Inside
The qualification criteria are precisely explained in the statutes of the Deutsche Welle Literature Prize. To qualify for the award an entry must contribute to understanding between people and give readers and listeners extensive information about the respective region from which the entered text originated.
At first glance, this may appear rather demanding and sound as if the objective, however well intended, may have overshot the mark. Experience has taught us that this is not the case at all and that the lofty aims were repeatedly achieved.
The Author's Motivation
This welcome and encouraging outcome has to do with the nature of literature itself. Literary manuscripts - at least those that offer more than just suspense and entertainment - are a reflection, a documentation, of the inner condition of an author. Like no other medium, literature imparts these inner workings.
Beginning with the choice of material and the way it is treated, the serious author reveals something about his or her motives and how he or she views the people, things and relationships that influence their lives. Of course, this was also the case for the young Africans I was told about beneath the awning of a hotel in Kenya. A correspondent accredited in Nairobi told me that there were numerous young people here, some of them students, who tried to overcome their despair by writing about it in the hope of finding some way out of it in the future.
At the time I thought to myself that this potential, which can certainly be found among more than just young people, could be tapped through some kind of literature prize. This idea struck a chord at the Deutsche Welle. The first experiment - an invitation to black African authors - brought us submissions in the form of radio plays and narratives from which listeners and readers could learn how people feel about this enormous continent, what disturbs them, what anguish they may suffer, but also what goals they have set for themselves and what makes them happy and glad to be who they are. In other words, stories that help deepen our understanding. After all, understanding is the first and foremost step toward communication.
Love, Hunger and Hardship
This was also absolutely true for the entries in Chinese. They confirmed what we had learned from one competition to the next - in Africa, the Indian subcontinent, the former Soviet Union, the Arab world, Mexico, Turkey, and last but not least, the most recent competition dedicated to the Chinese language. There were fairy tales and romances that told again and again of men and women struggling to live a uniquely personal life in the face of adversity.
Many of the entries movingly described experiences with hunger and hardship, war and civil strife, in elegant and refined literary style. Symbolic for all of these was the moving story "A Crust of Bread" by Eva Lissina of Moscow, which reached DW along with 1,300 other manuscripts from the decaying Soviet Union. She gave readers and listeners a taste of the bitter years of her post-war childhood.
Impressive Variety and Numbers
We received 1,166 entries in Chinese, an enormous amount of work for the editors making up the selection committee. As one would expect, the grain was first separated from the chaff, so to speak. The one hundred most interesting entries were then presented to a preliminary jury and from these, 20 contributions were selected for the main jury to judge. Most entries impressively described life in this large country, steeped in age-old traditions and culture and how the people there coped with the many political upheavals of the 20th century.
The social changes due to the modernization and commercialization of Chinese economic life also played a large role in the final entries. Typical for many of these was the subtlety and refinement with which the stories were told. They were more an expression of intelligent reflection than immediate and naive emotionalism.
A Powerful Effect
In addition to DW's director-general, who for years has sponsored the literature prize, we must also thank the Goethe Institute in particular, whose support and assistance greatly contributed to the success of the contest. The powerful effect generated by the many stories told from so many corners of the globe was certainly also a factor why the editors and other DW staff members involved were willing to work so diligently and selflessly to manage and evaluate the enormous number of literature prize entries.
The fact that the entries were so fascinating and contained such a unique array of information was perhaps also the reason why the intense cooperation with the respective jury members worked out so smoothly. I cannot recall a single instance where there had been any serious conflict. The decision-making process always ended in consensus.
The contests have shown that, when it really matters, people speak an internationally understandable language and are often prepared to express themselves in very moving ways. In doing so, the DW Literature Prize in all the previous contests has allowed each respective region to openly find its own words and expressive language to describe the spirit and soul of a nation or nations.
Joachim Burkhardt
(The author was the first to propose the DW Literature Prize and has accompanied the process from the very beginning. After many years working at Deutsche Welle, he now lives and works in Berlin as a writer and journalist.)