Chris Holmes, chair of the Department of Literatures in English, published an article on the Booker Prize, Britain's most prestigious prize for the novel. The essay, "The Booker Prize and Post-Imperial British Fiction," appears in the ORE for Literature, a new database of research articles run by Oxford UP.
Chris reads the history of the Booker prize as a parallel to Britain's transition to its post-imperial period. By examining how and why the prize has become a marker of literary prestige and capital for former British colonies like India, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, etc, Chris makes clear how literary value is still tied to ideas of ownership and indebtedness.
Chris wants to thank the English Department's writing group for their editorial guidance in completing this project. In particular, Professors Dyani Taff and Lenora Warren, two incredible scholars who lost their positions in the APPIC, were instrumental in making this a better piece of writing. IC's loss has been Colby College's and Cornell University's gain, where Dyani and Lenora will begin their new academic lives as tenure-track professors. Chris wishes them every happiness and success.
The essay can be accessed here
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20210526102529477