Abstract:Dutch literature and the Nobel Prize 1901-1965Since 1901 no Dutch language author has won the Nobel Prize for literature, which is surprising for a language of 22 million speakers. In how far is it possible to explain this? Whereas much research
on the prize is about rumours and guessing on poetics, this article turns towards sources that have not been used systematically before: the nomination database 1901-1964 of the Nobel Prize Organisation, recently updated with the year 1965. The article first reconstru… Show more
“…indicated that he was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (England) and a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of England. Medicine was not a focus in the nominations for the Dutch physician Simon Vestdijk either [ 24 ]. Other nominators emphasized that the works by the nominee in question were closely intertwined with medicine, as was the case with Gottfried Benn and Hans Carossa.…”
Section: Discussion: All Nobel Laureates Are Alike; Each Unhappy Nomimentioning
Several physicians have been nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature, but so far none of them have received it. Because physicians as women and men of letters have been a major topic of feuilletons, seminars and books for many years, questions arise to what extent medicine was a topic in the proposals for the Nobel Prize and in the Nobel jury evaluations: how were the nominees enacted (or not) as physicians, and why were none of them awarded? Drawing on nomination letters and evaluations by the Nobel committee for literature collected in the archive of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, this article offers a first overview of nominated physician-author candidates. The focus is on the Austrian historian of medicine Max Neuburger (1868–1955), the German novelist Hans Carossa (1878–1956), and the German poet Gottfried Benn (1886–1956), but it also briefly takes further physician-author nominees into account such as Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and William Somerset Maugham (1874–1965). The article is part of an interdisciplinary medical humanities project that analyses nominations and committee reports for physicians and natural scientists nominated for the Nobel Prize from 1901 to 1970.
“…indicated that he was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (England) and a Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of England. Medicine was not a focus in the nominations for the Dutch physician Simon Vestdijk either [ 24 ]. Other nominators emphasized that the works by the nominee in question were closely intertwined with medicine, as was the case with Gottfried Benn and Hans Carossa.…”
Section: Discussion: All Nobel Laureates Are Alike; Each Unhappy Nomimentioning
Several physicians have been nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature, but so far none of them have received it. Because physicians as women and men of letters have been a major topic of feuilletons, seminars and books for many years, questions arise to what extent medicine was a topic in the proposals for the Nobel Prize and in the Nobel jury evaluations: how were the nominees enacted (or not) as physicians, and why were none of them awarded? Drawing on nomination letters and evaluations by the Nobel committee for literature collected in the archive of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, this article offers a first overview of nominated physician-author candidates. The focus is on the Austrian historian of medicine Max Neuburger (1868–1955), the German novelist Hans Carossa (1878–1956), and the German poet Gottfried Benn (1886–1956), but it also briefly takes further physician-author nominees into account such as Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and William Somerset Maugham (1874–1965). The article is part of an interdisciplinary medical humanities project that analyses nominations and committee reports for physicians and natural scientists nominated for the Nobel Prize from 1901 to 1970.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.