한·일 문학상 비교 -출판사 문학상을 둘러싼 이슈와 화제-

Abstract

This study compares and analyzes the issues surrounding the literary awards of publishers in South Korea and Japan and the actual conditions of operation. There are hundreds of literary awards in both South Korea and Japan, but most of the influential literary awards that have exerted influence on the literary circles and literary markets are those operated by large publishers. In the case of South Korea, the biggest issues surrounding the literary award system are integrated into the issue of fairness. In particular, there are loud voices of criticism against the practice of publishers giving their literary awards to the works published by them. Meanwhile, Japanese literature awards are no different from South Korean ones in the monopoly and bias as such. The ratios of ‘self-awarding’ of the prestigious literary awards operated by Kōdansha(講談社), Shūeisha(集英社), and Shinchōsha(新潮社), including <Akutagawa / Naoki Award> of Bungeishnjū(文芸春秋) are mostly close to 4~50%. However, there are a difference in the responses of the cultural communities’ of the two countries to the problems of publishers’ literary awards such as monopoly and unfairness. That is, whereas South Korean literary circles have continued constant and pressing criticism of the unfair actual situation of literary awards, in the case of Japan, there is a strong tendency to recognize the commercial nature of publishers’ literary awards as a pre-established fact and view them as a ‘cultural product’. This attitude toward the literary awards is well revealed in the reporting behavior of the Japanese media to deal with the literary awards. In this paper, focusing on the case of the <Akutagawa/Naoki Awards>, the Japanese society’s interest in and attitude toward the literary awards were examined through the media’s enthusiasm for reporting on the awards ranging from the selection of nominated works, the announcement of the award winners, the judges’ reviews and awards ceremony, and the personal identity of the author. The foregoing is considered to be something that must be referred to find out what efforts should be made by the South Korean literary awards that sunk into a swamp of stagnation to arouse public interest and response.