The 2014 Man Booker Prize Controversy: a British cultural icon under a threat

Abstract

This thesis studies and discusses the controversy concerning the extension of the requirements for the Man Booker Prize, a literary prize established in the United Kingdom that is awarded every year to a novel of fiction written in the English language. The focus will be on the Man Booker Prize in 2014, which is deemed to be a controversial year as it was decided then that the entry requirements would be adjusted. The new rules state that any novel, as long as it is written in English and published in the United Kingdom in the same year of the prize, can be in the running for the Man Booker Prize. Previous years entering the competition was only possible for novels from the English Commonwealth, Ireland, and Zimbabwe. This matter will be researched from the perspective of cultural identity using the theories of Bourdieu.