The role of literary prizes in celebrating minority literature: The case of Sámi

In studies on the theory and history of literary prizes, national and global perspectives are emphasized. In this contribution, I will adopt this perspective to investigate how literary prizes and cultural transfer play a role in the visibility and celebration of Sámi literature in Northern Europe. After a brief description of the Sámi as a minoritized indigenous group, an introduction to literary prize theory and cultural transfer, the position of minority literature and the minority writer in general is described and applied to the Sámi situation. Subsequently, an overview of Sámi literary prizes, including national and Nordic literary prizes for which Sámi writers can be nominated, is presented, followed by a comparative analysis of the prizes that Sámi writers have received or for which they were nominated. The three axes proposed by James F. English in his seminal study, The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value (2005), are used in the analysis: the social, institutional, and ideological axes. I also consider the dimensions of gender, genre, territory, and language, as well as the question of cultural transfer. The conclusion considers the question of how literary prizes play a role in the celebration of Sámi literature and whether or not the national and global perspectives are intertwined with the peripheral perspective.